LG Electronics will invest approximately 150 billion won in expansion projects both domestically and abroad to respond to the surging demand for cooling equipment for AI (artificial intelligence) data centers.
On the 1st, LG Electronics announced that it is building a chiller manufacturing plant in Windsor, Virginia, U.S., with the goal of commencing production in the first half of next year. The new chiller plant will cover a total floor area of 32,000 square meters and a site area of 170,000 square meters, and will be responsible for producing air-cooled chillers primarily supplied to AI data centers.
A chiller is a cooling device that produces large quantities of cold water, utilized in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems across various sectors such as large buildings, commercial facilities, factories, and data centers. Because the coolant produced by chillers is widely used for both air cooling and liquid cooling in data centers, chillers are a core piece of equipment in data center cooling solutions.
Based on its new U.S. chiller plant, LG Electronics plans to actively respond to the rapidly growing demand for data center chillers in North America. North America is a key market where more than half of the world's AI data centers are concentrated. According to market research firm Omdia, the total power capacity required by data centers worldwide is expected to increase significantly from 226 gigawatts (GW) this year to 420 GW by 2030, with 60% of that demand projected to be concentrated in North America.
Virginia, where LG Electronics is building its chiller plant, is a region so densely packed with data centers from big tech companies that it is known as the 'Data Center Valley.' It is expected to serve as a bridgehead for rapidly meeting local demand while aggressively targeting the North American data center market.
In addition, LG Electronics will newly establish air-cooled chiller production lines and upgrade production equipment at its domestic plants in Pyeongtaek and Changwon. The company's strategy is to boost productivity by applying a new flow-line production system that processes everything from the first step to the final step on a single conveyor belt, thereby responding to increased demand. Domestic chiller production lines will be expanded in stages within the Pyeongtaek and Changwon plants by the end of this year, establishing a system capable of operating multiple lines simultaneously.
The total investment for the new U.S. plant and domestic line expansions is approximately 150 billion won.
Meanwhile, LG Electronics is accelerating its business expansion by offering a complete 'Chip to Chiller' solution, which covers all core components of AI data center thermal management, from chillers to coolant distribution units (CDUs) and cold plates that directly absorb heat generated by chips.
The company is also strengthening software (SW) and power infrastructure solutions aimed at improving energy efficiency. Given the high power consumption characteristic of AI data centers, improving energy efficiency allows for increased data processing while reducing power usage.
In the Asia region, where demand is rapidly increasing, LG Electronics is strengthening its business competitiveness based on 'One LG' by leveraging the capabilities of its affiliates. Recently, the company supplied One LG solutions to a hyper-scale AI data center being built in Jakarta by Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas Group. The company is expanding business opportunities by jointly proposing LG Electronics' HVAC technology, LG Energy Solution's battery solutions, and LG CNS's data center design, build, and operation (DBO) capabilities.
Lee Jae-sung, President of the ES Business Division at LG Electronics, stated, "We will continue to strengthen our stable supply capability in the cooling solution field, a core infrastructure for AI data centers, and aggressively target the rapidly growing market demand."
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