Naver, South Korea’s internet giant, has found itself at the epicenter of a dramatic surge in the nation’s stock market, fueled by mounting anticipation over deepening ties with Nvidia and the imminent visit of its high-profile CEO, Jensen Huang. Over the past several days, Naver’s shares have soared to record highs, with investors and analysts alike fixated on what this burgeoning partnership could mean for the future of artificial intelligence (AI) in Korea and beyond.
On June 1, 2026, Naver’s stock price rocketed as much as 29.91%, reaching an intraday peak of 304,000 KRW before closing at 271,500 KRW, according to Seoul Shinmun and TechM. This capped off a staggering three-day rally that saw the company’s shares climb approximately 32%, rebounding from the 190,000 KRW range just days earlier. The rally began on May 29, when news broke of Jensen Huang’s planned visit to Korea and a confirmed meeting with Lee Hae-jin, Naver’s influential chairman. Investors pounced, sending the stock up 14.15% that day alone.
The excitement didn’t stop at Naver. The broader KOSPI index also benefited from what’s now being dubbed the ‘Jensen Huang effect.’ On June 1, the KOSPI closed at a record 8,788.38, up 3.68% for the day, and its market capitalization surpassed 7,000 trillion KRW for the first time ever, as reported by Kyunghyang Shinmun. Program trading sidecars were even triggered during the session—a rare sign of frenetic trading activity. Shares of other Nvidia-linked companies, including LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Hyundai Motor, and Doosan Robotics, all posted substantial gains. Samsung Electronics, for instance, jumped 10.09% to a new high, pushing its market capitalization above 2,040 trillion KRW.
Central to this feverish optimism is the upcoming series of meetings between Jensen Huang and Korea’s corporate elite. After wrapping up his keynote at the GTC Taipei conference—where he notably featured Naver Cloud in his presentation, displaying a slide with “Nvidia♥Naver Cloud”—Huang is scheduled to arrive in Korea on June 4, 2026. On June 5, he’ll sit down with Lee Hae-jin and other top executives from SK, LG, and likely Hyundai Motor, with a visit to Naver’s futuristic ‘1784’ headquarters in Bundang, Seongnam planned for June 8. The 1784 building, a showcase for Naver’s robotics, cloud, and digital twin technologies, has become a symbol of the company’s ambitions in next-generation AI.
According to Financial Post and Business Post, the market’s enthusiasm is driven by more than just a celebrity CEO’s visit. There’s a growing sense that Naver and Nvidia are poised to expand their collaboration into critical new areas, including physical AI, sovereign AI, and even defense AI. Naver has already secured a hefty allocation of 60,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs—more than Samsung and Hyundai received—cementing its position as a key player in Korea’s AI infrastructure race.
The relationship between the two companies has been steadily deepening. Their first high-profile meeting took place in May 2025 at the Nvidia Cloud Partner Summit in Taiwan, where they inked a deal to jointly develop Southeast Asian sovereign AI agents. By October 2025, Naver Cloud and Nvidia had agreed to co-develop next-generation physical AI platforms, a move that set the stage for the current wave of market excitement. In late April 2026, Madison Huang, Nvidia’s Omniverse and Robotics marketing lead (and Jensen Huang’s daughter), visited Naver 1784 to meet with Naver executives and discuss AI strategies, further hinting at the breadth of their ongoing collaboration.
The stakes for Naver are enormous. As noted by Financial Post, the company’s AI ambitions rest on its proprietary large language model, HyperCLOVA X, and its robust cloud infrastructure. The integration of Nvidia’s cutting-edge GPUs and industrial AI platforms could see Naver extend its reach into sovereign AI, physical AI, and now, with the launch of a dedicated Defense AI Task Force, even military applications. On June 1, Naver Cloud announced the formation of this task force, led by Kim Yoo-won, to explore AI and cloud solutions tailored for defense environments—a first for the company.
Analysts are taking notice. All 23 analysts tracked by Financial Post have issued ‘buy’ recommendations, with an average 12-month target price of 294,741 KRW. Some, like Hana Securities and Eugene Investment & Securities, are even more bullish, setting targets at 350,000 KRW and 340,000 KRW, respectively. Only Samsung Securities maintains a more conservative stance, with a target of 260,000 KRW. The consensus is that Naver remains undervalued compared to global peers, with its 2026 estimated price-to-earnings ratio lagging behind other major platform companies.
Yet, for all the optimism, there are still voices of caution. As Financial Post and Business Post point out, the massive capital investment required to expand AI infrastructure—especially in securing the latest GPUs—poses real financial risks. There’s also the challenge of translating Naver’s AI advancements into tangible revenue growth fast enough to satisfy the market. And with Google’s AI search expanding its footprint in Korea, competition is only set to intensify.
For Naver, the upcoming meetings with Nvidia’s leadership represent more than just a public relations coup. They’re a litmus test for whether the company can deliver concrete results from its AI collaborations. As one analyst told Financial Post, “The verification of how these expectations translate into real-world performance remains. What specific cooperative achievements will materialize after the June 5 meeting will be crucial.”
Industry watchers are also drawing parallels to last year’s ‘chimaek meeting’—a now-famous dinner of chicken and beer between Jensen Huang and the heads of Samsung and Hyundai. That event sparked a mini-rally in related stocks, but this time, the focus seems to be shifting from data center AI to physical AI applications in factories, automobiles, robotics, and logistics. “The era when AI was confined to data centers is over. It’s now coming down to factories, cars, robots, home appliances, logistics, and the cloud,” said Kim Doo-eon, a researcher at Hana Securities, as quoted by Kyunghyang Shinmun.
Despite the unanswered questions and the need for real-world validation, the mood around Naver is one of cautious excitement. The company, once seen as a bystander in Korea’s AI semiconductor rally, is now firmly in the spotlight. As the June 5 summit approaches, all eyes are on what new chapters Naver and Nvidia will write together in the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence.
Whatever the immediate outcome, the events of the past week have already cemented Naver’s status as a central player in Korea’s AI future, with the world watching to see if this partnership can deliver on its promise.