Bernstein: Naver's Price Target Is 58% Above Current Levels, AI Factory Strategy Boosts Confidence

July 27th, Bernstein stated in a recent report that the Naver board has approved a private placement of 7.2 million common shares to NVIDIA at an issue price of 204,500 Korean Won per share, with a financing size of approximately 1.5 trillion Korean Won, equivalent to about $1 billion. After the transaction is completed, NVIDIA is expected to hold approximately 5% of Naver's shares, becoming one of its key strategic shareholders.

Bernstein believes that NVIDIA's investment will strengthen the market's confidence in Naver's AI Factory. As global AI infrastructure investment continues to expand, chip supply, capital support, cloud infrastructure, and downstream demand are accelerating integration. Naver had previously planned to jointly invest with NVIDIA and Brookfield in exascale, multi-tenant AI cloud infrastructure, providing computing power support for the next generation of AI enterprises in Korea and the United States.

The report points out that Naver's AI Factory is closer to the "neocloud" collaboration model: infrastructure investors provide capital, chip manufacturers support computing deployment, AI ecosystem partners contribute demand and model capabilities, while Naver sits in the middle, responsible for organizing and operating the entire technology stack. With NVIDIA becoming a shareholder, it is expected to reduce market concerns about hardware procurement, demand visibility, long-term ecosystem support, and enhance the feasibility of subsequent SPV financing and external capital raising.

Bernstein maintains an "Outperform" rating for Naver with a target price of 330,000 Korean Won. Based on the closing price of 209,500 Korean Won on July 24th, the potential upside is approximately 58%.