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On December 8, 2023, NAVER Cloud CEO Kim Yuwon discussed NAVER's technology infrastructure and global AI strategy with Reuters, a leading British news agency. Here are some excerpts from the interview, including AI strategy and technology exports to the Middle East.

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Export of digital twin technology, a sign of a new Middle East boom

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In October of last year, NAVER won a project from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing (MOMRAH) to build a national digital twin* platform. The project was the first sign of a new Middle East boom in technology exports following the engineering construction boom of the 1980s.

In the process of winning this project, NAVER has become the center of attention from several Middle Eastern countries. While discussing with various countries and companies, we realized that they are highly motivated to create their own AI ecosystems, rather than just introducing AI technology from the U.S. or China.

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* Digital twin: technology that replicates the real world in a digital environment

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Sovereign AI, another key to going global

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Many countries are facing challenges in adopting technologies tailored to the standards set by the U.S. and China, the two biggest dominators of the tech industry, because these technologies don't fit their own regulations and user environments. Accordingly, there is an active global movement among countries to protect their AI sovereignty with an effort to nurture their own AI industries and ecosystems.

Based on our experience and know-how in developing the world's third largest language model (LLM) centered on mother tongues, NAVER plans to support countries in need of their own AI models to build “sovereign AI” infrastructure, a customized AI that reflects their languages and cultures.

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Global competitiveness built on powerful technology and infrastructure

It is predictable that the competition for technological supremacy between countries over AI will intensify. Since its foundation, NAVER has been consistently investing in technology research and development to secure global competitiveness. We now have the powerful hyperscale technology and infrastructure.

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In November 2023, NAVER opened South Korea's largest data center GAK Sejong with a capacity of 600,000 servers. This is the place where we've integrated our know-how in operating NAVER's first data center GAK Chuncheon uninterrupted, accident-free, and disaster-free for the past decade. GAK Sejong now serves as a global hub to support TEAM NAVER's hyperscale AI and cloud businesses.

NAVER will strive to develop our diverse technologies with a solid foundation, such as AI, robotics, and cloud to be able to reach the global market beyond the Middle East, gaining a foothold for South Korea's technology exports ●