Brookfield lands Korea's first GPU loan at $8.02B, led by KB Kookmin Bank
What's the deal? BrookfieldDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised US$8.97B (roughly $8.02 billion) in post-IPO debt to buy AI chips for Korean tech giant NaverDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with KB Kookmin BankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → as lead arranger. It is the largest syndicated loan in South Korea's history and the country's first sizable GPU financing.
How it works: A special purpose company set up by BrookfieldDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → will own the GPUs and related infrastructure, then lease the computing capacity to Naver CloudDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → under a long-term agreement. Lenders are repaid from revenue generated by that supply contract. The loan is part of a wider US$10.6B package.
Who's in: KB Kookmin Bank leads the syndicate, overseeing the loan structure and terms. Hana BankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Shinhan BankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Woori BankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and NH Investment & Securities are also participating.
Why it matters: Conventional project finance centres on assets such as real estate or power plants. This deal applies the same model to chips, with repayment tied to expected service revenue rather than hard infrastructure alone. For scale, the round sits in the 99.96th percentile of all post-IPO debt deals in real estate.
The context: The loan is the financing layer for the $10 billion AI factory announced in July by Naver, Brookfield, and Nvidia. Plans call for expanding the Sejong facility from 55MW to 200MW by 2028; Nvidia separately committed $1 billion to Naver.
The signal: The deal marks a broader Asian shift, as banks and private lenders begin financing chips alongside data centres. "This arrangement is significant in that it opens up a new area of finance as the country's first GPU financing," a KB Kookmin Bank official said. The model's economics, though, depend on sustained demand and the long-term contracts underpinning the debt.
Read more: theedgemalaysia.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
