'One LG' Chairman Koo Kwang-mo Joins Hands with Microsoft to Expand AI Data Center and Physical AI Businesses

[Financial News] LG is expanding its cooperation with global technology giant Microsoft across its AI businesses, from artificial intelligence data centers and physical AI to enterprise-wide AI transformation (AX).
The partnership will combine LG's cooling, power and information technology (IT) infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities with Microsoft's global data centers and cloud platform. Under the 'One LG' system led by Koo Kwang-mo, LG aims to secure business opportunities early as Microsoft expands its global AI infrastructure.

LG announced that it held a top management meeting (TMM) with Microsoft at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, on the 21st (local time), attended by Koo Kwang-mo, chairman of LG Group, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and other executives. The two companies also signed a strategic partnership. 
LG was represented at the meeting by key executives including Kwon Bong-seok, chief operating officer of LG; Ryu Jae-cheol, CEO of LG Electronics; Hong Beom-sik, CEO of LG Uplus; Hyun Shin-gyun, CEO of LG CNS; and Suehyun Chung, head of LG Sciencepark. The attendance of the group's top executives is seen as part of a strategy to maximize business synergies with Microsoft through an 'One LG' system that brings together the group's capabilities in future AI fields such as AIDC and physical AI.
At the meeting, the two companies discussed three strategic opportunities for cooperation to accelerate the development of the AI ecosystem. 
In AI data center infrastructure, the companies agreed to jointly explore opportunities to supply LG's cooling, power and IT infrastructure solutions in line with Microsoft's global data center expansion. LG plans to provide core solutions needed for AI data centers reliably and establish itself as a practical supply partner as Microsoft expands its global AI infrastructure. 
In the short term, the companies will develop opportunities to supply large-scale cooling solutions, focusing on AI data center projects being built at key strategic hubs. In the medium to long term, they plan to expand their cooperation into prefabricated data centers that can be deployed rapidly. 

The two companies will also accelerate their collaboration on AI transformation. LG is pursuing a transition into an 'AI-native' company and plans to introduce Microsoft's AI and cloud platforms, including Microsoft Copilot, for office workers across the company to transform the work environment. Rather than simply adopting AI tools, LG plans to focus on designing a work environment optimized from the perspectives of security, cost and operations, while establishing new ways of working with AI. 
The companies also plan to expand their cooperation in physical AI. LG will make full use of Microsoft's high-performance cloud infrastructure to accelerate the development and training of models for physical fields such as manufacturing, logistics and mobility. They also agreed to strengthen their physical AI competitiveness by jointly using their infrastructure and platforms to build a 'data flywheel' that creates a virtuous cycle between the accumulation of manufacturing data and model training. 
Meanwhile, the partnership took shape through months of working-level discussions and executive exchanges after talks on strategic cooperation between the two companies began in earnest at a tech show held at Microsoft's headquarters last December. 

[email protected] Lim Soo-bin, Kim Hak-jae Reporter