LG Group puts AI at center of annual business reviews

LG Group has begun its annual business reviews of affiliates, with artificial intelligence expected to take center stage as Chairman Koo Kwang-mo pushes a groupwide strategy to win major technology customers and expand into emerging AI markets.

The reviews are expected to focus heavily on how individual affiliates are executing strategies to secure business opportunities in physical AI and AI data centers (AIDCs), with the results potentially influencing performance evaluations and executive appointments scheduled for late November.

LG Corp., the group’s holding company, said Monday it would begin the reviews with preliminary workshops for its electronics affiliates.

The process will run for about a month, starting with electronics companies such as LG Electronics, LG Display and LG Innotek, followed by chemical and battery businesses including LG Energy Solution and LG Chem, and telecommunications and IT services companies such as LG Uplus and LG CNS.

A key focus this year is Koo’s drive to mobilize capabilities across the group under its “One LG” strategy to capture opportunities in physical AI and AIDCs.

The reviews are expected to examine each affiliate’s plans and execution strategies for securing new growth opportunities in these emerging sectors.

At a meeting of group CEOs in September, Koo emphasized the urgency of AI transformation.

“AI is no longer an area where companies can choose whether to respond. It is a core pillar that will determine future competitiveness,” Koo said. “I urge our CEOs to move quickly and execute relentlessly so that we can win in the future battlegrounds of AI.”

Koo has personally led efforts to deepen partnerships with global technology companies, making visits to Silicon Valley since the beginning of the year.

In June, he held a top management meeting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at LG Twin Towers in Seoul. In August, LG signed a memorandum of understanding with Nvidia at the US chipmaker’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California, to pursue strategic cooperation in robotics, AI factories and mobility.

As part of the partnership, LG is developing a next-generation bipedal humanoid robot based on Nvidia’s Isaac GR00T platform, targeting an unveiling in the first quarter of next year.

The project draws on capabilities across LG affiliates, with LG Electronics developing robotic actuators that function as the robot’s muscles, LG Innotek supplying vision-related components that serve as its eyes, and LG Energy Solution providing batteries that act as its heart.

LG also plans to establish an AI factory reference site equipped with Nvidia’s latest Vera Rubin graphics processing units (GPUs) in the first half of next year.

By the first half of 2028, the group aims to build an 80-megawatt AI factory in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province.

The projects are intended to help LG offer global technology companies comprehensive AI factory solutions incorporating Nvidia’s latest technologies.

In September, Koo also met Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the software giant’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, to discuss cooperation in AIDC infrastructure, AI transformation (AX) and physical AI.

LG plans to combine capabilities across its affiliates to participate in Microsoft’s global data center expansion.

The effort would bring together LG Electronics’ cooling technologies, LG Energy Solution’s batteries, and the design and operational expertise of LG CNS and LG Uplus.

Attention is also turning to how heavily LG will weigh the execution of new AI businesses alongside performance in existing operations when making executive appointments at the end of the year.

Some observers expect limited turnover among affiliate CEOs in the personnel reshuffle scheduled for late November, given that partnerships with major technology companies are beginning to gain momentum.

LG Electronics CEO Lyu Jae-cheol and LG Chem CEO Kim Dong-chun are both in their first year in their roles, while Lyu is expected to begin delivering tangible AI-related results next year.

With LG having replaced the CEOs of major affiliates, including LG Electronics and LG Chem, last year, attention is likely to focus on whether the group promotes key executives capable of leading its future growth businesses.