Gate News message, April 17 — Naver and Kakao are forecast to deliver stronger Q1 2026 results, with both companies posting year-on-year gains in revenue and operating profit, according to FnGuide. Naver is projected to report revenue of 3.1 trillion won (US$2.14 billion) and operating profit of 560.9 billion won (US$381 million), while Kakao is expected to reach 2 trillion won (US$1.37 billion) in revenue and 179.5 billion won (US$122 million) in operating profit. Growth is driven by commerce and advertising expansion, though analysts noted that AI products remain in early stages and are unlikely to materially boost earnings this year.
Both companies are ramping up AI infrastructure investments. Naver spent a record 2.2 trillion won (US$1.51 billion) on research and development in 2025 and invested 1.3 trillion won (US$898 million) in capital expenditure, including 1.2 trillion won (US$789 million) for servers and related equipment. Naver completed South Korea’s largest AI computing cluster in January, featuring 4,000 Nvidia B200 (Blackwell) graphics processing units. Kakao allocated 1.3 trillion won (US$884 million) to R&D and plans to invest 424.9 billion won (US$289 million) to build its Ansan data center through 2029.
Both companies have shifted strategy from standalone chatbots to integrating AI agents into existing products. Naver is shutting down its standalone chatbots CLOVA X and Cue on April 9, redirecting focus to deploying AI agents across its service ecosystem. In the Naver Plus Store app, a shopping AI agent analyzes purchase history and recommends products. Kakao plans to integrate its Kanana AI brand into KakaoTalk, enabling features such as meeting scheduling and venue suggestions, with payment settlement through KakaoPay and KakaoBank.
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