Koo Kwang-mo, CEO of LG Corp., is accelerating global cooperation by holding a series of meetings with the heads of global big tech companies such as Microsoft and Nvidia. The plan is to establish LG as a key player in the AI data center ecosystem through its cooling solution technologies, batteries, and other capabilities.

LG Electronics announced that on the 21st (local time), CEO Koo met with Satya Nadella, Microsoft (MS) CEO, at MS headquarters in Redmond, Washington, and signed a strategic partnership. The top management meeting was attended by all of the group’s key executives, including Koo; Kwon Bong-seok, LG Corp. Chief Operating Officer (COO); Ryu Jae-cheol, LG Electronics CEO; Hong Beom-sik, LG Uplus CEO; Hyun Shin-kyun, LG CNS CEO; and Jung Soo-heon, LG Sciencepark CEO.

The meeting is seen as significantly increasing the likelihood that LG will supply cooling, power, and IT infrastructure solutions to the global data centers that Microsoft is currently developing. On the 10th (local time), Bloomberg reported that MS plans to expand its in-house data center capacity from the current level of about 10 gigawatts (GW) to 38 GW by 2032. As MS pushes ahead with aggressive large-scale expansion, expectations are rising that LG will gain many new business opportunities.

Collaboration between core LG affiliates and big tech firms is also taking more concrete shape. On the same day, LG Electronics and LG Energy Solution announced that they have joined Nvidia’s next-generation AI data center (factory) build-out program as “DSX Ready (Data Center Scale-out Ready)” companies. This comes about one month after CEO Koo visited Nvidia’s headquarters in California on August 13 and met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to form a partnership on AI data center construction and robotics.

Nvidia has established the “DSX AI Factory Platform” to integrate and optimize the entire process of building next-generation AI data centers. DSX Ready is a type of qualification program for products and solutions that meet related requirements, and LG Electronics’ Cooling Distribution Unit (CDU) and LG Energy Solution’s Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) have passed this program.

LG Electronics’ 2.5 megawatt (MW)-class CDU, which has received DSX Ready approval, is a high-capacity CDU capable of cooling 20 server racks at once. As the number of high-density circuits inside servers increases, heat generation is rising sharply, making CDUs a core facility for next-generation AI data centers.

LG Energy Solution’s BESS uses batteries to store electricity and discharge it when needed, making it essential for mitigating sudden surges in power demand during AI computation and maintaining stable power within AI data centers. Only three BESS products worldwide have received Nvidia’s DSX Ready certification, and among domestic battery manufacturers, LG Energy Solution is the only company on the list.

Market observers note that as managing heat generation and securing stable power supply inside data centers have emerged as major operational challenges due to higher AI performance, LG Group’s presence is steadily growing. In a recent report, Lee Kyung-yeon, an analyst at Daishin Securities, stated, “It is meaningful that LG has been incorporated into the AI value chain of global big tech companies,” adding, “Partnerships with global companies are expected to increase going forward.”

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