Naver Cloud has announced a strengthened collaboration with NVIDIA to build a sovereign AI ecosystem.

Yoo-Won Kim, CEO of Naver Cloud, participated in NVIDIA’s annual conference, “GTC 2025,” held in San Jose, USA. During the event, he revealed plans to achieve tangible results in establishing a sovereign AI ecosystem in Southeast Asia within the year.

Kim took the stage as a speaker at the specially organized “Sovereign AI Summit” session during GTC. He introduced “HyperCLOVA X,” a large language model (LLM) that has validated the potential of sovereign AI for non-English languages. Additionally, he presented Naver’s unique capability to implement an “AI Value Chain” and demonstrated real-world sovereign AI application cases.

Naver emphasized its comprehensive capabilities across the entire AI value chain, spanning AI services, data, AI backbone, supercomputing infrastructure, cloud, and data centers. By leveraging this extensive expertise, Naver offers tailored solutions to countries and enterprises at different stages of technological development seeking to establish sovereign AI systems.

Kim underscored the importance of AI in addressing various societal issues, citing practical applications. Examples included “CLOVA Care Call,” an AI-based welfare service supporting elderly people living alone in a super-aging society, and the establishment of Neurocloud by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and the Bank of Korea, which applies AI to secure national infrastructure sectors.

Regarding this collaboration, Yoo-Won Kim stated, “To solve the challenges faced by nations and enterprises, sovereign AI and self-reliant AI capabilities are essential. Naver is committed to supporting these entities.” He added, “Companies like Naver, which have experienced the entire AI value chain, must collaborate with NVIDIA and other players within the AI ecosystem to build a collaborative environment.”

Following their mutual understanding established last year, Naver Cloud and NVIDIA are currently working closely to develop actual business models for sovereign AI. Specifically targeting the Southeast Asian market, the two companies are jointly identifying local partners for LLM development, infrastructure, and applications. Through these efforts, they aim to present visible success stories within this year.