Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Azuma (@azuma_eth)
On July 24 Beijing Time, NVIDIA officially announced an investment of $1 billion in South Korean internet giant Naver to further strengthen AI infrastructure in South Korea. According to subsequent disclosures by Naver, NVIDIA will acquire approximately 4.5% of Naver’s shares through this strategic investment, becoming one of Naver’s key shareholders.
This investment is not merely a financial stake but will lead to deeper strategic cooperation centered on AI data centers. Bloomberg further reported that NVIDIA’s funding will support Naver’s ongoing AI data center project, which is jointly developed by Naver and U.S. private equity firm Brookfield. The data center will fully adopt NVIDIA’s AI computing hardware, with its overall scale expected to more than double.
For NVIDIA, this investment in Naver is a significant step in its ongoing expansion of AI computing power, data centers, and supply chain infrastructure; for Naver, this partnership will further strengthen its position in the competition for AI infrastructure in Korea.
Naver is also the "quasi" parent company of Upbit.
For the cryptocurrency industry, the additional attention surrounding NVIDIA's investment in Naver is not due to Naver’s own AI infrastructure initiatives, but because the company is currently advancing a significant transaction in South Korea’s cryptocurrency sector through its financial subsidiary, Naver Financial—acquiring Dunamu, the parent company of Upbit.
Naver Financial, established in 2017, primarily operates payment services such as Naver Pay.
As early as 2021, Naver demonstrated strong interest in the cryptocurrency sector by attempting to acquire Bithumb, South Korea’s leading crypto exchange; although the acquisition was not completed, the move revealed its ambitions in digital assets.
Although its initial attempt faced setbacks, Naver has not ceased its exploration of the cryptocurrency sector.
In 2025, Naver Financial began deepening its collaboration with Dunamu, gradually expanding into the digital asset payments sector—the two parties had previously discussed cooperation on KRW stablecoin payment solutions, with Naver Pay handling payment scenarios and Dunamu providing digital asset-related technical support.
On September 25 of the same year, Naver Financial officially announced that it would jointly advance a share exchange transaction with Dunamu to achieve full acquisition of the latter. According to the plan disclosed by both parties, Naver Financial will issue new shares to acquire the shares held by Dunamu’s shareholders. Upon completion of the transaction, Dunamu will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Naver Financial, and its Upbit platform will join the Naver ecosystem.
- Odaily note: For more details, see “From Missing Bithumb to Securing Upbit: The Evolution of Naver’s Crypto Ambitions”.
As one of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Upbit was launched by Dunamu in 2017 and has long held a significant position in Korea’s digital asset trading market. If completed, this transaction would represent a deep integration between Korea’s traditional internet giant and a cryptocurrency trading platform.
According to information previously disclosed by Korean media, the share swap transaction between Naver Financial and Dunamu is valued at approximately $9.9 billion, and upon completion, is expected to create one of South Korea’s largest fintech companies.
However, due to some unforeseen reasons, this transaction has not yet been completed as of now.
An acquisition agreement has been reached, but it is currently stalled due to antitrust regulatory review.
According to the original plan by Naver Financial and Dunamu, both parties aimed to complete the integration within 2026. However, due to regulatory complexities involving South Korea’s financial sector, digital assets, and the merger of large corporations, the approval process for the transaction has not progressed smoothly.
The main obstacle comes from the antitrust review by Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC). Since Naver is a major player in Korea’s internet industry and Upbit has long held a leading position in Korea’s cryptocurrency trading market, the merger could create a vast business ecosystem spanning payments, financial services, and digital asset trading, requiring regulators to assess its potential impact on market competition.
In addition, this transaction involves multiple regulatory approval processes, including approvals related to the change of the largest shareholder of Naver Financial and related filings by Dunamu under Korea’s Specific Financial Transaction Information Act.
In July 2026, Naver Financial and Dunamu again announced a delay in the completion of the transaction, pushing the share exchange originally scheduled for September 2026 to December 31 of this year.
However, both parties have not abandoned this transaction. Naver Financial stated that the company will continue to actively cooperate with the regulatory review process and work to ensure the successful completion of the transaction; Dunamu also emphasized that the collaboration aims to enhance the competitiveness of Korean companies in the digital finance sector.
Although Naver and Dunamu had long agreed on the acquisition intent, the final outcome of this approximately $9.9 billion transaction depends on regulatory approval, which will determine whether Upbit officially becomes part of Naver’s financial ecosystem.
So, is NVIDIA really going to become a shareholder of Upbit?
Is NVIDIA really going to become a shareholder of Upbit? Based on the current progress of the acquisition between Naver and Dunamu, the answer is still strictly speaking, no.
NVIDIA will acquire approximately 4.5% of Naver’s shares, not any equity in Upbit or its parent company Dunamu. If the planned full acquisition of Dunamu by Naver proceeds smoothly in the future, Upbit could potentially establish an indirect equity connection with NVIDIA as it becomes integrated into Naver’s financial ecosystem.
However, this is still only a potential relationship for the future. A more accurate description of the current situation is that Upbit, South Korea’s top cryptocurrency exchange, and NVIDIA, the world’s largest company by market capitalization, are connected by an incomplete capital linkage.