Seoul: South Korean tech giant Naver Corp. announced plans to invest more than 1 trillion won (US$692.9 million) next year in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. The company will introduce an AI agent across its major services, including shopping and search, as part of its strategy to become a leading AI company.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver, emphasized the company's commitment to accelerating AI innovation across Korean industries, leveraging its AI software capabilities. Speaking at Naver's annual tech conference, DAN25, in southern Seoul, Choi expressed the company's ambitions to position Korea among the world's top three AI powers.

Naver plans to expand investment in data centers and computing to build the largest and most advanced AI infrastructure in Korea. The company will invest over 1 trillion won in graphics processing units (GPUs) next year and initiate full-scale operation of a physical AI test bed, linking its headquarters in Seongnam with its data center in Sejong.

The company has secured 60,000 GPUs from Nvidia Corp., part of a larger plan to deploy 260,000 GPUs to South Korea. Naver Cloud Corp. CEO Kim Yu-won noted that the company aims to use these GPUs for AI services like HyperCLOVA X, acknowledging that more GPUs are needed.

Choi also detailed plans to integrate Naver's self-developed large language model, HyperCLOVA X, into core services under the "On-service AI" strategy. Naver will introduce its AI agent, Agent N, starting with shopping and later expanding to search and advertising. The launch of a shopping agent on Naver Plus Store is planned for the first quarter of next year, followed by the introduction of AI Tab, integrating AI agents with search, in the second quarter.