ANN/THE KOREA HERALD – LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo visited the United States last week to assess the operations of the group’s key subsidiaries and explore future growth opportunities in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, and cleantech, the company announced on Sunday.
During his four-day trip from June 17, which took him from Tennessee to Silicon Valley in California, Koo also held discussions with Jim Keller, the CEO of emerging chip design firm Tenstorrent.
In Tennessee, Koo toured LG Electronics’ manufacturing facility, as well as LG Chem and Ultium Cells, to evaluate industry trends and potential shifts in trade policies.
“Let’s embrace significant challenges and advance confidently to secure sustainable growth over the long term,” Koo encouraged his employees.
At Ultium Cells, a joint venture between LG Energy Solution and General Motors, Koo examined the prospects for the North American electric vehicle market and trends among major clients.
LG has designated Tennessee as a strategic hub for its North American market expansion due to its central location and efficient transportation and logistics infrastructure. The presence of major automakers like GM, Volkswagen, and Nissan in the state makes it an ideal location for LG’s cathode material plant.
LG Chem plans to construct the largest cathode material plant in the US here, aiming to start full-scale production of nickel, cobalt, and manganese cathode materials by 2026.
“Every company is navigating the same uncertainties in the business environment, from shifting market and customer trends to evolving trade policies and logistics challenges,” Koo remarked.
“To overcome these, we must seize new opportunities and fundamentally strengthen our competitiveness by enhancing our product portfolio, supply chain, innovation processes, and localization capabilities to improve yields and quality.”
In Silicon Valley, Koo visited LG’s startup investment arm, LG Technology Ventures, and LG Electronics’ North America Innovation Center to discuss strategies for startup investment and development, particularly in AI.
LG Technology Ventures, which manages a fund of KRW1 trillion (USD719.7 million), has invested USD360 million in over 80 startups and funds to date.
During his meeting with the CEO of Tenstorrent, they discussed trends in AI semiconductors, fabless technology, and the impact of AI proliferation on the chip industry. Koo also met with Brett Adcock, founder of Figure AI, to explore the current state and key trends of the humanoid robot market and observe the Figure 01 robot in action.
Koo’s focus on startups highlights his belief that AI will be a catalyst for innovation across all industries, significantly transforming business structures.
Last August, he visited Vector Labs and Xanadu Labs in Toronto to gain insights into the latest AI developments.
The Korean conglomerate has been intensifying its efforts in AI, with the LG AI Research Institute developing Exaone, a multimodal AI model capable of bilingual language processing and generating both text and images, in 2021.
Koo has made annual trips to North America since taking office in 2019, except for 2020 and 2021.
