Nvidia Invests $1B in Naver to Expand South Korea AI Data Centers

inDrive, a ride-hailing competitor to Uber, plans to launch robotaxi testing with Pony.ai in Kazakhstan's capital during the first half of 2027. The partnership involves Nvidia technology and marks inDrive's entry into autonomous vehicle operations. The tests will evaluate robotaxi viability in a Central Asian market.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang visited Kazakhstan on October 23, meeting with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Deputy Prime Minister Zhaslan Madiyev to discuss the country's AI infrastructure expansion. Firebird announced a major investment agreement securing 45,000 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GPUs for a data center launching in Q3 2027, while Kazakhstan pursues Kazakh-language AI models and physical AI applications in mining, agriculture, and logistics. The visit signals Kazakhstan's shift from planning to deploying compute infrastructure as part of a broader strategy to export AI capabilities alongside its energy resources.

European retailers are deploying NVIDIA-accelerated open models and robotics to cut costs and improve operations. Shopify reduced inference costs by 90% through post-trained models, Zooplus achieved 86% search accuracy in product discovery, and L'Oréal accelerated ingredient research from months to hours using AI-based screening. The deployments span digital commerce, fulfillment automation, and R&D workflows.

NVIDIA is promoting its DSX AI Factory Platform as a solution to power infrastructure bottlenecks, which currently affect over 200 gigawatts of U.S. projects in interconnection queues and create more than $300 billion in equipment backlog. The platform integrates grid, facility, and compute systems through simulation, flexible demand management, and optimization tools. Major energy and infrastructure companies including GE Vernova, Hitachi Energy, Schneider Electric, and Siemens Energy are adopting or developing complementary solutions to address the power constraint problem.