Total investment of 150 billion won

Meeting demand for AI data center cooling solutions

32,000-square-meter air-cooled chiller production base in Virginia

Production target set for first half of next year

Pyeongtaek, Changwon lines to expand by year-end

Named Nvidia cooling solution partner last month

Targeting 'chip to chiller' total solution provider status

LG Electronics is expanding its global chiller production capacity by building new factories in the United States and South Korea to meet surging demand for AI data center cooling solutions. Pictured is a conceptual rendering of an AI data center equipped with LG Electronics' high-performance chillers and other cooling solutions. [LG Electronics]
LG Electronics is expanding its global chiller production capacity by building new factories in the United States and South Korea to meet surging demand for AI data center cooling solutions. Pictured is a conceptual rendering of an AI data center equipped with LG Electronics' high-performance chillers and other cooling solutions. [LG Electronics]

LG Electronics will build a chiller factory in Virginia to meet surging demand for AI data center cooling solutions, while simultaneously investing in new production lines at its domestic facilities in Pyeongtaek and Changwon. The total investment across all sites amounts to 150 billion won ($110 million).

The company has been accelerating its push into the global market, most recently earning official partner status in Nvidia's AI data center cooling solution ecosystem. Its strategy is to continuously strengthen its liquid cooling technology and product lineup as it works toward becoming a total solution provider for AI data center thermal management.

LG Electronics plans to build a chiller production factory in Windsor, Virginia, targeting the start of production in the first half of next year. The facility will cover a total floor area of 32,000 square meters on a 170,000-square-meter site and will focus on producing air-cooled chillers primarily supplied to AI data centers.

A chiller is a large-scale cooling unit that produces chilled water in bulk and is used in heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems across a wide range of settings, including large buildings, commercial facilities, factories and data centers. The chilled water chillers generate serves both air-cooling and liquid-cooling functions inside data centers, making them a core component of data center thermal management.

LG Electronics plans to use the new US factory to actively meet rapidly growing demand for data center chillers across North America, where more than half of the world's AI data centers are concentrated. According to market research firm Omdia, global power capacity required by data centers is forecast to grow significantly, from 226 GW this year to 420 GW by 2030, with 60 percent of that demand expected to be concentrated in North America.

Virginia in particular is so densely packed with big-tech data centers that it has earned the nickname "Data Center Valley." By producing chillers on-site, LG Electronics aims to build a stable and responsive supply chain while also establishing the state as a bridgehead for the broader North American data center market.

In addition to the US investment, LG Electronics will build new air-cooled chiller production lines at its Pyeongtaek and Changwon factories in South Korea. The new lines will adopt a flow-line production system in which every stage of manufacturing — from the first process to the last — runs on a single conveyor, boosting overall productivity. The domestic chiller lines will be rolled out in phases at both factories by year-end, creating a setup capable of running multiple lines simultaneously.

The combined investment in the new US factory and the domestic line expansions totals 150 billion won. LG Electronics said it will continue to increase production capacity by expanding production lines and upgrading manufacturing equipment at its global production bases.

LG Electronics has assembled a full "chip to chiller" solution suite covering the key components of AI data center thermal management — from chillers and coolant distribution units to cold plates that directly absorb heat from chips — and is moving quickly to grow that business.

Late last month, the company was officially listed as a partner in the "Power and Cooling" category of the Nvidia Partner Network, bringing it into the Nvidia AI data center ecosystem.

Analysts say the partnership broadens LG Electronics' access to global customers building Nvidia-based AI data centers, increasing the likelihood that its chillers and coolant distribution units will be considered from the earliest stages of next-generation AI data center planning and design. The company expects the move to expand its business opportunities in the global AI data center cooling market.

LG Electronics is also strengthening its software and power infrastructure solutions to improve energy efficiency. Given that AI data centers are heavy power consumers, gains in energy efficiency translate directly into greater data processing capacity.

"We will continue to reinforce our stable supply capabilities in the cooling solution sector — the core infrastructure of AI data centers — and aggressively pursue the rapidly growing market demand," said Lee Jae-sung, president and head of LG Electronics' ES Business Division.


jeongwan@heraldcorp.com