Naver, Kakao, and NHN to Secure GPUs with 1.5 Trillion Won Budget

Naver, Kakao, and NHN have been selected as participants in the government's GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) procurement project.

On July 28, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that Naver Cloud, NHN Cloud, and Kakao have been chosen for the project to secure a total of 13,000 GPUs with the government's first supplementary budget of 1.46 trillion won. The ministry stated that these companies will use the purchased GPUs to support AI development and applications. The selected companies will also be able to build expertise in the GPUaaS (GPU as a Service) business, which has become a core driver in the AI sector.

Naver Cloud will secure 3,056 units of Nvidia's H200 GPU to build AI servers at its own data center. Of these, the government plans to utilize 2,296 units for support in academia, research, and industry. NHN Cloud will secure 7,656 units of Nvidia's B200 GPU, while Kakao will also secure and deploy 2,424 units of the same model.

The Ministry of Science and ICT stated, "All three companies have expressed strong commitment to expanding the domestic sovereign AI ecosystem and have agreed to actively participate in maximizing the government's GPU utilization. They plan to use a portion of the GPUs for their own AI development and advancement, as well as to supply GPUs to academia, research, and industry at affordable prices. Some of the participants also plan to strengthen investment in domestic AI infrastructure, thereby contributing to the domestic AI ecosystem in various ways."