Naver Raises $1.09B in Green Bonds to Fund AI Infrastructure and Data Centers

Gate News message, April 15 — South Korean internet company Naver issued $1.09 billion in green bonds (bonds earmarked for environmental projects) today, comprising $500 million in five-year dollar bonds and €500 million ($588 million) in seven-year euro bonds. The funds will support eco-friendly data centers and ESG initiatives aimed at enhancing energy efficiency. Orders exceeded nine times the issue size from 437 investors, marking Naver's first euro-denominated bond.

Naver plans to invest over 1 trillion won ($680 million) in GPUs starting this year and is exploring AI data center projects in Europe. The company targets carbon neutrality by 2040, a decade ahead of South Korea's national goal, though it expects greenhouse gas emissions to rise in the near term as data center capacity expands.

The bond sale supports South Korea's national strategy to rank among the top three global AI powers by 2030, which calls for deploying 260,000 GPUs. Naver's GAK Chuncheon data center holds LEED Platinum certification and operates the custom NAMU cooling system, reducing artificial cooling to about 35 days per year. The company invested 473.2 billion won ($322 million) in servers and equipment for its GAK Sejong expansion in Q4.