Naver executives prioritize Saudi Arabia over CES

Naver Labs CEO Seok Sang-ok delivers a keynote address at KAUST. [Courtesy of Naver]

In an unusual move, key executives from South Korea’s Naver Corp. opted to forego CES 2024 in favor of a business trip to Saudi Arabia. Reports suggest that Naver, which has been investing heavily in overseas sales of core technologies including artificial intelligence and cloud robotics, is concentrating its efforts in the Saudi market to pursue additional business opportunities.

According to sources on Sunday, the Naver delegation, led by Chae Sun-joo, Naver’s President in charge of external affairs and ESG policy, included Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yoo-won, Naver Labs CEO Seok Sang-ok, and Naver Cloud’s AI Innovation head Ha Jung-Woo. The team engaged in a series of meetings with key Saudi stakeholders from the first day of the new year until January 10th, 2024.

“Naver participated in CES in the past to secure potential B2B customers in areas such as digital twin and robotics. But choosing Saudi Arabia over CES indicates a strategic focus on specific high-profile clients with concrete business prospects,” an industry insider said.

A notable achievement from the trip was the strengthening of ties with a prestigious local university involved in the Saudi “NEOM City” project, with a total budget in the $500 billion range. During the visit, Seok Sang-ok, CEO of Naver Labs, delivered a keynote address at the “Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) Workshop” hosted by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) on January 7th, 2024. Often referred to as the “Saudi MIT,” KAUST is a leading local engineering university dedicated to fostering scientific talent and research and development.

The collaboration with KAUST gains significance as the university essentially functions as the “core brain” of the NEOM project. Nadhmi A. Al-Nasr, CEO of the NEOM project, is an alumnus of KAUST, and the university’s chairmanship is held by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. With Naver actively participating in projects to develop digital twin platforms for five Saudi cities, the collaboration with KAUST is expected to play a pivotal role in expanding Naver’s local business footprint.

During the visit, Seok presented Naver developments in digital twin, AI, cloud robotics, and autonomous driving technologies. KAUST officials were reportedly very interested in solutions such as ALIKE (producing core data with aerial photos and AI), Multi-Robot Intelligence System (ARC) and autonomous driving robot technology.

The Naver executives’ visit to Saudi Arabia is believed to have included further discussions with local partners in the digital sector. The delegation reportedly met with high-ranking Saudi officials to assess the actual demand for Naver’s technology.

Saudi Arabia, which is gearing up for a government-led “super app” project, showed particular interest in Naver’s large language model (LLM) and Naver Cloud’s collaborative tool, Naver Works.

Naver has been accumulating related technologies with the goal of developing Naver Works as an “AI super app” that is necessary for the digital transformation of enterprises as well as the operation of smart buildings and smart cities.

Naver is also making progress in its establishment of a Saudi Arabian subsidiary. The local entity, slated to launch in the first quarter of 2024, will oversee the entire $100 million digital twin platform project signed with the Saudi government in October 2023.