HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE) and Naver Cloud have signed an agreement to develop a cloud environment tailored to the shipbuilding industry, supporting AI applications across ship design, production and future vessel platforms.
Naver is a Korean technology company providing a range of Google-like services to the domestic market, including search, maps, e-mail and mobile payments, as well as cloud storage.
The partners will build an AI and cloud infrastructure optimised for HD KSOE’s engineering and manufacturing operations, with the longer-term objective of supporting AI deployment across HD KSOE parent company HD Hyundai’s shipbuilding businesses.
The project includes the development of a private cloud environment and GPU infrastructure based on an AI Factory framework, alongside the creation of a joint Centre of Excellence (CoE) to develop AI and cloud expertise within the organisation.
The companies also plan to collaborate on software-defined vessel (SDV) platforms, AI applications for shipyard operations, and physical AI technologies. Areas of work will include ship data platforms, real-time data processing and control architectures, as well as AI vision systems and robot operating platforms for shipbuilding applications.
“As the shipbuilding industry faces a massive shift driven by global AI transformation, establishing an AI foundation optimised for shipbuilding is more important than anything else,” said Kim Yu-Won, CEO of Naver Cloud (translated from Korean).
“Together with HD Hyundai, we will build a cloud environment specialised for the shipbuilding industry and create an AI innovation model that can expand into other industries as well.”
HD Hyundai says it will combine Naver’s AI capabilities with its database of more than 200 million shipbuilding and maritime data points to support the development of its AI-enabled smart shipyard.
“By successfully completing the construction of an AI-based intelligent smart shipyard, we will lead the future vessel market,” said Kim Hyung-Kwan, CEO of HD KSOE (translated from Korean).
