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Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon speaks with Mexican Minister of Economy Marcelo Ebrard on the 25th local time. / Naver

Naver has explored market entry into Mexico by discussing cooperation with the Mexican government on public sector AI transformation (AX) and AI infrastructure development. Expanding its footprint across Latin America following Brazil and Chile, the South Korean tech giant is seeking business opportunities in the regional AI market powered by its sovereign AI, data centers, and AI factory technologies.

According to Naver on the 29th, an executive delegation including CEO Choi Soo-yeon, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Kim Hee-cheol, and Chief Data Officer (CDO) Kim Kwang-hyun visited Mexico for two days starting on the 24th as part of a presidential business delegation. The executives held a series of meetings with officials including Minister of Economy Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, Minister of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation Rosaura Ruiz Gutierrez, representatives from the Agency for Digital Transformation and Telecommunications (ATDT), and executives from local IT firm Softtek.

CEO Choi introduced Naver's public AX capabilities, sovereign AI strategy, and AI factory initiative pursued alongside Nvidia and Brookfield to the Mexican government. Drawing on these capabilities, she proposed cooperation to accelerate AI transformation across Mexico's public sector and strengthen industrial competitiveness. Minister Ebrard expressed high expectations for collaboration with Naver, noting that Mexico is actively expanding exchanges with global AI companies and nurturing its domestic AI industry.

Both sides are also discussing concrete collaboration projects in AI infrastructure and digital twin technologies. Choi met with the Minister of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation to discuss ways to cooperate on establishing nationwide high-performance computing and AI clusters being pursued by Mexico. Naver has also begun identifying projects with the state of Querétaro, where more than 70% of Mexico's data center infrastructure is concentrated, and is coordinating implementation plans for a digital twin pilot project targeting two major cities in the state.

At the Korea-Mexico Business Forum held on the 25th, CDO Kim Kwang-hyun presented a cooperation roadmap for the AI transformation of local industries. Emphasizing the need to build an AI ecosystem tailored to Mexico's language, data, and industrial landscape, he outlined plans to share the AI expertise and technological capabilities of South Korean firms, including Naver.

This marks the first time Naver executives have directly met with government and corporate officials in Mexico to explore market opportunities. In August, Choi met with executives from Brazilian AI infrastructure firms Scala Data Centers and Tecto Data Centers, as well as Entel, Chile's largest telecommunications operator, to discuss potential cooperation. With this latest trip to Mexico, Naver is accelerating its push to expand its AI business across Latin America.

                                                                                                            Lee Seo-yeon