Naver Commits $9 Billion With Brookfield for AI Data Center Build-Out

Naver signed a $9 billion infrastructure agreement with Brookfield Asset Management to fund AI compute and data center expansion across Asia-Pacific. The deal structures Brookfield as the capital partner for multi-year build-out, with Naver retaining operational control and anchoring capacity commitments. Financial close occurred this week without prior disclosure in Naver's quarterly guidance.

The partnership targets three to five new hyperscale facilities by late 2027, split between South Korea and secondary APAC markets where power grid access remains underpriced. Naver will occupy roughly 60 percent of the capacity for its own AI training workloads and cloud services; the remainder goes to third-party colocation, a margin-accretive hedge Brookfield insisted upon. Construction begins in Q2 2025 on the first 200-megawatt campus outside Seoul, already permitted and grid-connected. Brookfield's infrastructure funds provide the equity; Naver contributes land, permitting velocity, and the operational stack that kept its existing facilities above 99.98 percent uptime last year.

This is the largest single infrastructure commitment by a non-Chinese Asian internet company and the clearest signal yet that AI capital expenditure has moved from episodic to permanent. Naver's previous data center spend ran approximately $400 million annually; this deal implies a five-fold increase in run-rate capex without touching its balance sheet. The structure mirrors hyperscaler sale-leaseback arrangements in the U.S., but with Brookfield taking construction and financing risk while Naver locks in below-market power costs for the next 15 years. South Korea's electricity tariffs remain 30 percent cheaper than Tokyo and 40 percent below Singapore for industrial users, a wedge that narrows each year but still favors early movers.

The timing also reflects Naver's limited options for raising this scale of capital domestically. Korean institutional allocators remain underweight infrastructure debt, and the won-denominated bond market cannot absorb a $9 billion issuance without meaningful rate concessions. Brookfield solves both problems: it brings dollar-denominated patient capital and a global LP base already comfortable with long-dated AI infrastructure bets. The partnership also insulates Naver from mark-to-market risk on construction overruns, which plagued earlier hyperscale projects in the region and sent several operators back to their banks mid-build.

Operators should track Naver's Q2 2025 earnings call for updated AI revenue guidance, as the company has historically underreported cloud services contribution ahead of major capex cycles. Brookfield will likely announce a dedicated Asia-Pacific digital infrastructure vehicle by mid-year, using this deal as the anchor asset to raise an additional $3-5 billion from LPs. Watch for similar sale-leaseback or joint-venture structures from Kakao and Line within six months, as Korean internet companies face identical capital constraints and identical AI spending mandates. Power purchase agreements in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province, where two of the planned campuses will sit, should tighten by late Q2 as the grid operator digests this load addition.

The 15-year lock on power tariffs is the actual asset here, not the buildings.