Naver founder Lee Hae-jin to return as board chair to push AI business

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Naver founder Lee Hae-jin to return as board chair to push AI business

Naver founder Lee Hae-jin speaks at a session prepared by Startup Alliance in 2019. [STARTUP ALLIANCE]

Naver founder Lee Hae-jin speaks at a session prepared by Startup Alliance in 2019. [STARTUP ALLIANCE]

 
The founder of Naver, Korea’s largest portal site, Lee Hae-jin, will return as a board chairman after a seven-year absence with a mission to drive the company's AI business forward. 
 
The founder’s comeback is imminent, according to industry sources on Wednesday, with the board planning to submit a proposal regarding Lee’s reinstation as an inside director within the week.
 
If the motion is passed at next month’s annual shareholder meeting, Lee is expected to assume the role of board chair.
 
A Naver spokesperson refused to comment on the matter.
 
Lee stepped down from the board in 2017 to shift his focus to expanding Naver’s global business as a global investment officer.
 

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Lee has made few public appearances and has not taken a role in the company’s domestic operations until now.
 
Lee’s return comes amid intensifying competition in the global AI sector, driven by the emergence of Chinese firm DeepSeek, which released an advanced AI model reportedly trained at a lower cost and with less advanced processors.
 
Korea’s internet landscape is dominated by local platforms, including search engine Naver, but leading Korean tech companies have fallen behind U.S. Big Tech rivals in AI due to Silicon Valley's prodigious investment in the field.  
 
Naver released its in-house large language model (LLM) HyperClova in 2021, followed by a more advanced version, HyperClova X, in 2023.
  
The development of LLMs with a superior understanding of the Korean language and Korea's cultural context meshes with Lee's vision for Sovereign AI, the concept that each nation needs AI independence and should possess AI models tailored to its culture and language.
 
Naver founder Lee Hae-jin, far left, and CEO Choi Soo-yeon, far right, pose with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at Nvidia’s headquarters in California on June 25, 2024. [YONHAP]

Naver founder Lee Hae-jin, far left, and CEO Choi Soo-yeon, far right, pose with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at Nvidia’s headquarters in California on June 25, 2024. [YONHAP]

 
In June 2024, a picture of Lee and Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon posing with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang went viral domestically. Naver said the trio met to discuss the importance of Sovereign AI.
 
The company said at a press event last year to outline its AI strategy that it would continue to invest heavily in AI and service integration, spending “as much as one-fourth of its total annual revenue” on research and development, according to its chief executive.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]
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