LG Electronics AI Data Center Cooling Orders Top KRW 3 Trillion

LG Electronics said on Oct. 28 that cumulative orders for its AI data center cooling business topped KRW 3 trillion through the third quarter, up from about KRW 600 billion at the end of the first half. The company disclosed the figure in its third-quarter results release.

The jump follows a long-term supply agreement for chillers with AIR Control Concepts, a North American data center infrastructure company, covering AI data center projects with a combined capacity of more than 5 GW, according to The Korea Herald. LG's chief financial officer said on the earnings call that the agreement is not a one-off project but a long-term contract that secures revenue for several years, Newspim reported. The Seoul Economic Daily put the order increase at more than KRW 2.4 trillion in a single quarter.

From chillers to CDUs and fan-wall units

Today most of the cooling revenue still comes from chillers, an LG executive from the Eco Solution business told analysts, according to Newspim. LG plans to add liquid cooling products such as coolant distribution units (CDUs), which move coolant between server racks and the facility's heat rejection loop, and air-handling products such as fan-wall units (FWUs). Over the longer term it wants to design, control and maintain whole cooling plants, not only sell equipment. The company named the United States as its biggest market and said it is expanding into the Middle East and Asia.

LG did not disclose a medium-term revenue target or a split of sales by product, Newspim reported. It said the product mix and integrated offering should lift profitability above its conventional HVAC business, which is a management expectation and not a result yet.

Capacity spending and what has not reached the income statement

LG said it is investing an additional KRW 220 billion to upgrade production sites and expand capacity, including a strategic manufacturing base in the United States near major AI data center clusters. Newspim reported that the plan covers a local plant of about 70,000 square metres plus new lines at Pyeongtaek and Changwon.

The orders have yet to show up in earnings. The Eco Solution unit reported third-quarter revenue of KRW 2.17 trillion, up 3% from a year earlier, and operating profit of KRW 87.2 billion, down 34%, as capacity spending and other growth costs weighed. The Korea Herald said the unit's operating margin fell to 4% from 8.6% in the second quarter. LG said delivering large AI data center cooling projects on time is its top priority for the fourth quarter.

For operators, the order book shows how much of the cooling supply chain for AI sites is being bought as multi-year capacity: a 5 GW chiller agreement is sized to the power of data centers, not to individual halls. The Seoul Economic Daily also noted that LG's chillers are the only ones from a South Korean company included in NVIDIA's DSX Ready certification for AI factory products.

Earlier LG cooling moves and what to watch

The results add numbers to a push that LG showed at the HARFKO trade show on Oct. 21, where it gave no capacities, and to its immersion cooling design work with GS E&C and GRC. LG has not said what share of the KRW 3 trillion is chillers versus CDUs, how much will be recognised as revenue in 2027, or whether the CDU supply discussed with AIR Control Concepts has been agreed. The fourth-quarter deliveries and the start of the US plant are the next checkpoints.