Naver founder Lee Hae-jin to return as board chair to focus more on AI development

SEOUL, Feb. 6 (Yonhap) -- Naver Corp. founder Lee Hae-jin is set to return as chairman of the board at South Korea's largest internet portal operator, signaling the company's strong commitment to regaining momentum in the increasingly competitive artificial intelligence (AI) industry, sources said Thursday.

Naver's board of directors approved Lee's reinstatement at its meeting, according to the sources.

His return is expected to be finalized at the general shareholders meeting in March, marking his comeback seven years after stepping down.

Lee, who founded Naver in 1999, resigned from the board in 2017 to focus on the company's overseas expansion, taking on the role of global investment officer.

Lee's return comes at a time of rapid transformation in the AI landscape, driven by the emergence of Chinese startup DeepSeek's new AI models, trained at a lower cost and with less advanced processors.

Naver, which dominates the local platform industry with rival Kakao Corp., released its own large language model (LLM) HyperClova X in 2023 and plans to roll out its customer-facing AI services later this year.

The company is positioning HyperClova X as South Korea's "sovereign AI," aiming to compete with global tech giants. To support this vision, Naver has invested nearly 1 trillion won (US$690.4 million) in constructing two massive data centers in South Korea.

Sovereign AI refers to a nation's capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks.

Meanwhile, Kakao recently announced a strategic partnership with U.S. AI giant OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT's technology into its flagship KakaoTalk messenger and other key services.

brk@yna.co.kr
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