Nvidia will now pay for its $1 billion of new Naver shares on 6 November rather than 30 October, DigitalToday and Seoul Economic Daily reported, citing a revised filing Naver made on 30 October. The issue price is 204,500 won a share. Naver traded at 172,100 won in Seoul trading on 30 October, so by our arithmetic the price Nvidia has agreed is about 19% above the market.
Once the purchase is completed, Nvidia is expected to hold about 4.54% of Naver and become its third-largest shareholder, behind the National Pension Service and BlackRock, both outlets reported.
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The key insight: By our arithmetic, the 204,500-won issue price is about 19% above Naver’s 30 October price of 172,100 won, and at the 29 October exchange rate Nvidia’s $1 billion would buy about 6.54 million shares, roughly 702,000 fewer than the 7,241,564 the filing lists, DigitalToday’s figures show.
DigitalToday reported that the revised filing “showed the payment date for the third-party allotment rights offering to Nvidia was changed to Nov. 6 from Oct. 30”. “The planned listing date for the new shares was also adjusted to Nov. 27 from Nov. 20”, it added.
The schedule follows Naver’s 27 October contract with Brookfield. DigitalToday wrote that “The schedule was confirmed after conditions precedent for Nvidia’s equity investment were met”, the condition being at least $9 billion of AI computing infrastructure. Our Brookfield contract piece has the guarantee terms behind that $9 billion.
Naver daily close since July against the 204,500-won issue price of the new shares for Nvidia: 225,000 won on 27 July and an intraday price of 172,100 won on 30 October, about 16% below the issue price (our arithmetic). Sources: Yahoo Finance; DigitalToday, 30 October 2026.
The Exchange Rate Decides the Share Count
The dollar amount is fixed at $1 billion and the price per share is fixed at 204,500 won. The number of shares is not. The filing lists 7,241,564 shares, about 1.48 trillion won, a figure DigitalToday says was “calculated based on 1,480.9 won per dollar applied at the time of the July filing”. DigitalToday reported that the final count is set using the exchange rate “at around 4 p.m. on Nov. 3”.
The won has strengthened since July. The European Central Bank reference rate was 1,337.29 won per dollar on 29 October. At that rate, by our arithmetic, $1 billion converts to about 1.34 trillion won and buys about 6.54 million shares, roughly 702,000 fewer than the filing lists, or about 9.7% fewer. DigitalToday notes that “The final stakes of Nvidia and Lee could vary depending on the number of shares to be issued”.
What Nvidia Pays For
At 172,100 won, about 6.54 million shares would be worth about 1.13 trillion won, or about $840 million at the 29 October reference rate, by our arithmetic, against the $1 billion Nvidia pays. The gap moves with Naver’s share price and with the won. Naver closed at 225,000 won on 27 July, the first trading day after The Korea Times reported the deal on Saturday 25 July, above the issue price; on 30 October it was about 16% below it, by our arithmetic.
The shares come with a lock-up. They will be registered as mandatory holdings with the Korea Securities Depository, “restricting withdrawal and sale for 1 year”, DigitalToday reported. Naver plans to use the money for its AI factory business. Seoul Economic Daily reported that Naver “plans to start operating a 55-megawatt AI factory in the first half of 2027 at its hyperscale data center Gak Sejong” and to expand to 200 megawatts in 2028.
Under the July plan, Brookfield funds up to $9 billion, Nvidia invests $1 billion and Naver funds the rest of a $10 billion project; our Brookfield contract piece sets out those terms. Nvidia has taken stakes in other infrastructure companies, including Nebius and Lancium; our compute-for-equity piece looks at the pattern.
New Naver shares that $1 billion buys at 204,500 won each: 7,241,564 in the filing at 1,480.9 won per dollar; about 6.54 million at the ECB reference rate of 1,337.29 on 29 October (our arithmetic). Sources: DigitalToday; ECB.
Who Owns Naver After the Deal
Seoul Economic Daily reported that, as of August, the National Pension Service held 9.49% of Naver and BlackRock 7.31%. Nvidia’s expected 4.54% would place it third. Founder and chairman Lee Hae-jin’s stake is expected to fall to about 3.84% from 4.03% as the new shares dilute existing holders.
The Structural Read
As we read it, the price was set in July, when Naver traded above it; Naver closed at 225,000 won on 27 July and traded at 172,100 won on 30 October, by Yahoo Finance data.
By our arithmetic, the won is about 10.7% stronger against the dollar than the 1,480.9 rate used in the July filing, which is why the share count falls while the dollar amount stays at $1 billion.
As we read the reports, the condition behind the investment was the $9 billion Brookfield contract signed on 27 October, which DigitalToday says confirmed the schedule.
DigitalToday, 30 October 2026, on Naver’s revised filing
“the payment date for the third-party allotment rights offering to Nvidia was changed to Nov. 6 from Oct. 30”
Three Implications
FOR NAVER SHAREHOLDERS Seoul Economic Daily reported that founder Lee Hae-jin’s stake is expected to fall to about 3.84% from 4.03% as the new shares are issued.
FOR NVIDIA DigitalToday reported the new shares are held at the Korea Securities Depository with withdrawal and sale restricted for one year.
FOR THE AI FACTORY Seoul Economic Daily reported Naver plans a 55-megawatt AI factory at Gak Sejong in the first half of 2027 and 200 megawatts in 2028.
The framework sets out to map the financing of AI: “How the money flows, where it cracks, what it buys, who can absorb it, and what happens when revenue can’t catch up.”
As we read it, the Naver deal is a “how the money flows” case: Nvidia buying $1 billion of new Naver shares, with the money going to Naver’s AI factory business, after Naver signed a $9 billion contract with Brookfield. The framework was published in May 2026 and does not discuss Naver.
What Is Not Established
The final number of shares, the final stake and the won amount are not fixed until the 3 November exchange rate is applied. The 4.54% and 3.84% figures are the outlets’ expectations based on the filing’s tentative share count. Neither outlet gave a reason for moving the payment date. The 19% premium, the 6.54 million shares and the $840 million value are our arithmetic from the issue price, a 30 October share price and the 29 October reference rate; they move with both. We read the outlets’ reports, not the filing itself.
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Naver’s revised filing moves Nvidia’s $1 billion payment to 6 November and the new-share listing to 27 November. The issue price of 204,500 won a share is about 19% above Naver’s 30 October price, and at the current exchange rate the same $1 billion would buy about 9.7% fewer shares than the filing lists, by our arithmetic.
A note on sourcing. The schedule, share count, stake and lock-up come from DigitalToday and Seoul Economic Daily reports of 30 October 2026 on Naver’s revised filing; we read the reports, not the filing. Share prices are Yahoo Finance data, and the 30 October price is intraday, read at about 13:40 Seoul time; the exchange rate is the European Central Bank reference rate. The premium, share count and value figures are our arithmetic. We did not contact Nvidia or Naver.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
