NAVER is seeking to expand cooperation with the Mexican government and companies in advanced technology fields including artificial intelligence and digital twins.
The company said on the 29th that a management team including CEO Choi Soo-yeon, Chief Financial Officer Kim Hee-chul and Chief Data Officer Kim Kwang-hyun visited Mexico for two days beginning on the 24th as part of a presidential economic delegation. The executives held a series of meetings with officials from Mexico's Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation, and the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Agency, as well as with executives of local IT firm Softtek. It was the first time NAVER executives had traveled to Mexico to meet public- and private-sector officials to explore the market.
Choi briefed Mexican government officials on NAVER's capabilities in public-sector AI transformation, its sovereign AI strategy and the AI factory project it is pursuing with Nvidia and Brookfield, and proposed cooperation.
Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón said the Mexican government is expanding exchanges with global AI companies such as Nvidia as it works to build up its domestic AI industry. He added that he expects NAVER to contribute to Mexico's AI ecosystem development and digital innovation.
Choi also met with Rosaura Ruiz Gutiérrez, minister of science, humanities, technology and innovation, to discuss cooperation on Mexico's national high-performance computing and AI cluster project.
NAVER is also pursuing joint projects with the state of Querétaro, where more than 70% of Mexico's data center infrastructure is concentrated. The two sides are discussing detailed plans for a pilot project to build digital twins of two major cities in the state.
At the Korea-Mexico Business Forum on the 25th, Chief Data Officer Kim presented to leading business figures from both countries on the importance of building AI ecosystems that reflect a country's own language, data and industrial characteristics. He also laid out a vision of sharing AI technology and experience from NAVER and other Korean firms to support AI transformation and industrial competitiveness in Mexico, a manufacturing power in North and Central America.
