Brookfield Leads South Korea's First $8 Billion GPU Financing

Odaily: Global investment firm Brookfield has appointed KB Kookmin Bank as lead arranger for South Korea's largest-ever syndicated loan. The loan is intended to finance the procurement of artificial intelligence chips by South Korean tech giant NAVER. In a statement on Sunday, KB Kookmin Bank said the loan proceeds will be used to purchase AI computing infrastructure, including graphics processing units (GPUs).

The bank said the loan amounts to 10.7 trillion won (approximately $8 billion) and is part of a total financing package worth 12.6 trillion won. It also noted that this is South Korea's first large-scale GPU financing transaction, with the related AI chips to be provided to NAVER Cloud under long-term leases. Banks and private credit funds in Asia are expanding their AI financing business, with coverage no longer limited to data center construction but also extending to hardware equipment such as chips that provide computing power support. (Jinshi)