[비즈한국] Amid rising concerns about an "AI bubble" due to overheated investment, Kim Yu-won, CEO of Naver035420 Cloud, stated that the core of the issue is not merely model development, but whether technology actually generates economic and social utility. He emphasized Naver Cloud’s approach of prioritizing real-world service application and industry-specific integration over the trend of chasing short-term performance. The 60,000 GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) secured from NVIDIA are planned to be introduced sequentially starting in 2026, to be utilized across Naver’s overall AI business and advancement projects. Attention is focused on Naver Cloud’s strategy to build a practical, "field-ready" AI ecosystem for both domestic and international industries.
What is Naver Cloud’s Proposed AI Technology Roadmap?
At Naver’s integrated annual conference ‘DAN25’ held at COEX in Gangnam, Seoul, on the morning of the 6th, Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yu-won unveiled his vision to lead the growth of the domestic AI ecosystem, stating, "If the existing Sovereign AI focused on technological self-reliance centered on language and culture, 'Sovereign 2.0' is a concept that expands this to industries and daily life as a whole to enhance national competitiveness." In this process, the company will strengthen its technology infrastructure by collaborating with partners, including NVIDIA, from whom they have secured 60,000 of the latest GPUs.
This emphasizes Naver’s leading role, as it is involved across the board in major national projects related to becoming one of the top three AI powerhouses. Naver has been selected as a finalist for the government-led ‘Independent AI Foundation Model’ project, competing against companies like SK034730, LG003550, NC, and Upstage. It is also listed as a key participant in the Samsung SDS018260 consortium, which bid independently for the national AI computing center project. The company is leveraging its high-performance infrastructure—including ‘Gak Sejong,’ the largest data center in Asia—and its own cloud-based GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) capabilities as weapons.
During the press conference held after his keynote address, CEO Kim said, "AI is an unstoppable historical trend. If we want to move beyond just weathering this trend and ride it to take a step forward, bold investment and securing inventory for GPUs and infrastructure are necessary. I view it positively that corporations and the government have come together with one mind to produce results."
It is understood that a specific timeline for the introduction of NVIDIA GPUs has not yet been set. CEO Kim stated, "Even if they arrived overnight, we are in a situation where we need to secure base facilities like data centers. It must be precisely aligned with our data center plan," adding, "We plan to invest more boldly than we did in the past."
Regarding how the capabilities of a provider with expanded GPU and related infrastructure should be implemented, CEO Kim explained, "I believe it is an act of patriotism to provide stable infrastructure and to ensure electricity costs are slightly lower than in other countries. The same applies to the national AI computing center. The mission given to us is how to stably build GPU infrastructure that both the government and companies can utilize."
Humanoid Deployment ‘Imminent’, Moving Beyond Search to a Full-Stack AI Operator
CEO Kim also shared his views on the recently discussed AI bubble. Regarding the overheated investment in the AI industry, he explained, "I have been alert to this for some time. Value can only be secured if the results are greater than the input costs. It is positive that investment is happening in AI technology and that technology is advancing, but ultimately, what matters is what value you create with that technology."
This consideration aligns with the industry-specific AI strategy deployed by Naver Cloud. Naver Cloud is cooperating with leaders in public and private sectors, such as the Bank of Korea, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, and Daedong, the nation's largest agricultural machinery manufacturer, as well as foreign companies and governments. The digital twin technology ‘ARC,’ considered the key to their Saudi Arabia contracts, is a technology that creates 3D structures from aerial photos and synthesizes spatial information using AI, including photos taken by cars. Following the enhancement of disaster response and urban management systems in major Saudi cities, Naver plans to introduce a map-based super app next year that integrates data from this region.
CEO Kim emphasized, "We currently possess world-class technological prowess with a significant lead in certain areas. Furthermore, to utilize AI in manufacturing sectors such as semiconductors, shipbuilding, and automobiles, processes such as joint research, development, data collection, and feedback sharing are necessary—not just simple product purchases. Naver has sufficient capacity to contribute with its full-stack AI capabilities."
At the event, an image of the ‘Mininoid,’ a 1-meter-tall humanoid robot being developed by Naver Labs, was also unveiled for the first time. The Mininoid will be deployed at Naver’s headquarters later this month and used as a physical testbed for Naver’s physical AI technology.
At DAN25, Naver introduced the transition of all Naver services into agents and the transformation into industrial AI as its main strategies. Building on a year of strengthening AI-based exploration features, the company plans to evolve from a search company into a hyper-personalized AI agent platform. The explanation is that Naver’s data and infrastructure, which internalize search, shopping, local services, and finance, hold a favorable position compared to global competitors like Google and OpenAI.
This ‘Agent N’ is planned to be introduced sequentially starting with Naver’s shopping sector in the first half of next year, with an integrated AI agent expected to be provided by around next summer. Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon stated, "There are many AI services, and there will be more in the future, but it is rare to find a company that can connect everything from search to daily life experiences and execution in a single, natural flow within one platform. Naver’s direction will become the standard for user experience in the AI era."