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From left: Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon, Naver Founder and Global Investment Officer Lee Hae-jin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Nvidia Executive Vice President Jay Puri, and Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yu-won pose for a commemorative photo at Nvidia's Taiwan office in May last year. / Photo via Naver

Naver is making a full-scale entry into the defense and security artificial intelligence (AI) market by establishing a dedicated organization for national defense AI projects. As the global AI competition expands into the defense and security sectors, the company's strategy focuses on accelerating the development of military-specific AI solutions leveraged by its proprietary AI models and cloud infrastructure.

According to IT industry sources on June 1, Naver Cloud is launching its National Defense AX (AI Transformation) Task Force today. This marks the first time Naver has formed a dedicated AI organization focusing exclusively on defense initiatives.

The newly formed unit will be directly spearheaded by Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yu-won. It plans to consolidate AI model development, business development, and marketing capabilities to drive the development and commercialization of AI models tailored for national defense.

The most notable feature of this initiative is the front-line deployment of a Field Deployment Engineer (FDE) organization. FDEs are personnel dispatched directly to client sites to support the integration and operation of AI systems, tasked with designing and implementing customized solutions that reflect the actual operational demands of the military.

Industry observers interpret Naver’s structural move not merely as a business expansion, but as a strategic effort to secure a new growth engine. As the generative AI race shifts from model benchmark performance to industry-specific services, the defense sector is evaluated as a highly lucrative market characterized by high barriers to entry and stable demand.

Particularly in the defense sector, which handles military secrets and national security data, "Sovereign AI" capabilities—which allow a country to build independent AI services and reduce dependence on foreign AI platforms—stand as a core competitive advantage. Naver envisions providing AI services optimized for defense environments based on its proprietary foundation models and secure cloud infrastructure.

Moving forward, the company also plans to apply omni-modal AI technology, which simultaneously processes and reasons across text, image, and voice data, to the defense sector. Potential applications under discussion include reconnaissance and surveillance data analysis, military operational support, and the automation of defense administration.

The industry is watching closely to see if Naver can establish a business model similar to that of the American AI firm Palantir Technologies. Palantir is a premier security-focused AI enterprise that has scaled significantly by supplying data analytics platforms to governments, militaries, and intelligence agencies.

An industry insider remarked, "The defense AI market is a sector where data security and long-term trust building are just as vital as technological prowess," adding, "The key will be whether Naver can expand its presence in the public and defense markets by leveraging its established Sovereign AI capabilities."

                                                                                                            Lee Seo-yeon