South Korea’s Naver Cloud and Vietnam’s IT giant FPT have announced a strategic partnership to jointly develop AI factory and GPUaaS businesses. This move is driven by the rapidly growing demand for sovereign AI, which emphasizes data sovereignty, in the Asia-Pacific region, where there is a rising need for the integrated provision of advanced AI models and high-performance infrastructure.

Key Points of the Partnership Announcement and the Full Picture of the AI Factory Business

On October 12, 2026, major South Korean cloud provider Naver Cloud and FPT, Vietnam’s leading global ICT company, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding the AI Factory and GPUaaS (GPU as a Service) businesses at Naver’s second headquarters building, “1784,” in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. This partnership aims to strongly promote the joint deployment and commercialization of AI infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region—including South Korea, Vietnam, and Japan—and the global market. Under this agreement, the two companies will build a system to provide an all-in-one package of graphics processing unit (GPU) resources required for AI training and inference, hyperscale AI models, and deployment services. This will enable enterprise customers to immediately adopt advanced AI solutions without investing massive capital to build their own proprietary infrastructure. Please refer to the figure below.

This initiative is positioned as a comprehensive partnership that goes beyond a mere equipment-supply relationship, encompassing every stage from development to operation.

The synergy between the infrastructure strengths and technical assets possessed by both companies

The partnership between Naver Cloud and FPT creates a robust synergistic effect through the complementary combination of their respective exceptional technological assets and regional sales foundations. Naver Cloud possesses advanced AI capabilities—having independently developed “HyperCLOVA X,” the world’s third hyper-scale large language model (LLM)—along with cloud operation know-how. Meanwhile, FPT is Vietnam’s largest IT company, operating in over 30 countries and regions worldwide, with fiscal year 2025 revenue of $2.66 billion USD and a workforce exceeding 44,000 employees. The company holds official NVIDIA Cloud Partner status, and its AI Factories established in Vietnam and Japan are ranked 38th and 36th, respectively, in the global supercomputing rankings. Furthermore, FPT boasts a global pool of over 30,000 AI-augmented engineers, with a track record of providing AI cloud services to more than 18,000 AI developers and 2,000-plus enterprises. By fusing these foundations, the two companies will give birth to a powerful AI ecosystem capable of competing against hyperscalers in the Asia-Pacific region.

Technology Strategies Supporting Sovereign AI and High-Efficiency Inference

Market Strategy with HyperCLOVA X and GPUaaS

At the core of both companies’ commercialization strategies are responding to the demand for “Sovereign AI”—which emphasizes data governance and legal regulations within one’s own country or region—and providing efficient GPUaaS. Through this partnership, NAVER Cloud’s hyperscale AI model “HyperCLOVA X” is scheduled to be provided to FPT’s enterprise customers via the “FPT AI Factory” deployed by FPT. In addition, both companies will leverage NVIDIA’s open model “Nemotron 3” and others to advance their own AI models, optimize models, and conduct joint research on core technologies. When companies adopt AI, it is extremely important not only to improve model accuracy, but also to reduce inference costs and ensure security. Please refer to the figure below.

The two companies will provide on-premises and regional cloud environments that meet strict data residency requirements, offering an end-to-end environment supporting everything from training to inference for enterprises in heavily regulated industries such as finance, manufacturing, and healthcare.

Field-Driven Engineering Exchange and AI Agent Implementation

What is particularly noteworthy about this MOU is the deep level of on-the-ground engineering collaboration, which goes far beyond merely providing infrastructure or software licenses. The two companies will establish a regular technical exchange program featuring engineers from Naver Cloud’s Vietnam development center and South Korean headquarters, along with FPT’s advanced engineering team. This initiative aims to strengthen Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) capabilities, with joint teams embedding themselves within customer organizations to tackle and solve challenges. Specifically, they will jointly execute tasks such as optimizing the inference performance of large language models, efficiently controlling GPU clusters, and deploying autonomous “AI agents” capable of handling complex operations in production environments. By providing close, on-site technical support, the partnership strongly empowers customer organizations to move beyond mere proof-of-concept (PoC) phases and directly translate AI into tangible business results and productivity improvements.

Impact on the AI Market in the Asia-Pacific Region and Future Outlook

Rapid Surge in Infrastructure Demand in Southeast and East Asia

Currently, in major countries of Southeast Asia and East Asia, demand for AI computing is surging amid the explosive growth of the digital economy. However, ownership of advanced GPU resources and supercomputing infrastructure is concentrated in a few developed nations, and the shortage of data centers and computing resources has become a challenge in emerging markets. In this context, the combination of FPT’s sales network in Southeast Asia and Japan, which is directly connected to NVIDIA’s ecosystem, and NAVER Cloud’s proven cloud operation track record in South Korea will serve as a crucial stepping stone to bridge the region’s “Compute Divide.” By alleviating the burden on individual companies and nations to build and maintain massive data centers on their own and offering flexible subscription-based GPUaaS, this initiative is expected to dramatically accelerate AI innovation across the entire region.

Soaring into the Global Market and Future Developments & Key Points to Watch

As for future developments and points of interest, the two companies plan to progressively expand their business beyond South Korea, Vietnam, and Japan to the broader Asia-Pacific region and global markets. In the short term, they will focus on establishing a joint sales structure and securing initial customers through technological exchange, while in the medium to long term, they may expand their cooperation into the joint construction and operation of sovereign AI factories tailored to local regulations and cultures. Particularly in today’s environment, where data sovereignty and compliance are under intense scrutiny, close attention will be paid to how much market share an alliance model capable of adapting to region-specific languages and cultures can capture as an alternative to the monopolistic dominance of US mega-hyperscalers. The ultimate focus moving forward will be whether the Naver Cloud and FPT alliance can generate concrete business results through rapid technology integration and customer acquisition, thereby establishing a new, Asia-originated AI infrastructure model.

Reference page

• 【FPT Software Official Press Release】 https://fptsoftware.com/newsroom/news-and-press-releases/press-release/fpt-and-naver-cloud-form-strategic-alliance-to-fuel-ai-innovation-across-asia-pacific-and-beyond
• [FPT Japan Holdings Official Website] https://fptsoftware.jp/

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