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TEAM NAVER Attends GAIN 2024 and Begins AI Collaboration with Saudi Arabia to Accelerate Middle East Expansion Strategy

- Lee Hae-jin, Founder & Global Investment Officer; Choi Soo-yeon, NAVER CEO; and Chae Seon-ju, President of ESG and External Policy of NAVER attended Saudi Arabia’s largest AI conference

- Successive meetings were held with key Saudi Arabian government ministries and the Saudi Data & Artificial Intelligence Authority

- Kim Yu-won, CEO of NAVER Cloud emphasized the importance of AI sovereignty in a keynote speech, stating, “We will support Saudi’s AI innovation”

- Saudi Arabia’s leading technology partner, TEAM NAVER, signed an MOU with the Saudi Data & AI Authority, expanding cooperation to the AI field after digital twin technology

September 12, 2024

TEAM NAVER announced the start of its collaboration with Saudi Arabia in the AI field after attending the “Global AI Summit,” Saudi Arabia’s leading AI conference, and signing several memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with key AI-related government agencies.

The Global AI Summit 2024 (GAIN 2024), organized by the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA), is a world-scale AI conference designed to foster international collaboration and drive innovation in AI across industries in line with Saudi Arabia’s ‘Vision 2030’.

The third iteration of GAIN 2024, held over three days starting September 10 (local time), was attended by TEAM NAVER, including Lee Hae-jin, Founder & Global Investment Officer; Choi Soo-yeon, NAVER CEO; Chae Seon-ju, President of ESG and External Policy at NAVER; Kim Yu-won, NAVER Cloud CEO; and Seok Sang-ok, CEO of NAVER LABS. During the event, NAVER Cloud CEO Kim Yu-won emphasized the growing importance of AI sovereignty in a GAIN keynote speech, expressing NAVER’s commitment to contributing to Saudi Arabia’s venture into the AI era by leveraging its unmatched AI technology capabilities and experience.

In addition, TEAM NAVER, led by GIO Lee Hae-jin, met with key officials from the Saudi Arabia government, including Municipalities and Housing Minister H.E. Majed bin Abdullah Al-Hogail, Communications & Information Technology Minister H.E. Abdullah Alswaha, Commerce Minister H.E. Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Kassabi, and SDAIA President H.E. Dr. Abdullah bin Sharaf Alghamdi.

During its visit to Saudi Arabia for GAIN 2024, TEAM NAVER also signed an MOU with SDAIA, which oversees all AI in Saudi Arabia. SDAIA President H.E. Dr. Abdullah bin Sharaf Alghamdi had previously visited NAVER 1784 in May to experience various future technologies and discuss technical cooperation.

With this MOU, TEAM NAVER and SDAIA are set to collaborate extensively in the fields of AI, cloud, data center, and robotics. In particular, NAVER, NAVER Cloud, and NAVER LABS plan to develop data center–related solutions and services, cloud solutions based on them, Arabic-based large language model (LLM) and related services, and research and development of intelligent robots and related applications. Building on its previous collaboration with digital twin technologies, TEAM NAVER plans to continue as a key technology partner of Saudi Arabia in the field of AI. </End>