Battery Next is Bio and AI... How Far Has LG's ABC Come?

Gu Kwang-mo, CEO of LG Corporation, is showing active movements in the ABC (AI, Bio, Cleantech) sectors, which he has chosen as future growth engines. This is because the electric components and battery businesses, which have been carefully promoted for 20 to 30 years, are now yielding results, making it the right time to prepare for the next 10 to 20 years.

On the 25th, the business community interpreted CEO Gu’s allocation of his 3-night, 4-day business trip to Boston and Toronto for expanding AI and bio businesses as a sign of expanding the ABC business, which has been prepared for several years, on a global scale. Inside LG, the dominant view is that this move reflects CEO Gu’s determination to nurture future businesses such as AI and bio to a global top level and lead future industries, marking the beginning stage of the full-scale globalization of the ABC business.

Last year and this year, CEO Gu visited the LG AI Research Institute in Magok, the LG Chem Life Sciences Plant in Osong, the LG Chem R&D Institute in Magok, and the LG Chem Cathode Material Plant in Cheongju, consecutively, to check the domestic progress of the ABC business. Until now, the focus has been on the domestic market, refining internal organizational structures and securing talent to build fundamental capabilities in the ABC fields. However, it is now judged that the ABC business can develop core competencies to lead the market and win in global competition. Since the electric components and battery businesses started 20 to 30 years ago are now profitable and producing tangible results, the need to expand the next business globally has increased.

LG established the first genetic engineering laboratory among domestic private companies in 1981 and started its bio business early, including obtaining FDA approval for the quinolone antibiotic 'Factive' in 2003. However, since LG’s business itself focused on manufacturing such as home appliances, the bio business did not achieve significant results in the past. CEO Gu, who took office in 2018, identified bio as a new growth engine responsible for LG’s future and aligned LG’s bio business direction toward new drug development, which is completely different from Samsung’s manufacturing-based bio business.

LG’s bio business is centered on LG Chem, which absorbed and merged LG Life Sciences in 2017. After establishing the LG Chem Life Sciences Boston Corporation (Innovation Center) in Boston, USA in 2019, LG accelerated new drug development this year by acquiring the US anticancer drug company 'Aveo.' LG Chem Life Sciences is expanding global clinical projects and strengthening commercialization capabilities focusing on anticancer drugs and cell therapies. Using Aveo, acquired this year, LG plans to speed up its entry into the US market, which accounts for more than half of the global innovative drug market.

AI has also gained momentum since CEO Gu’s appointment. LG, which had been researching AI in its affiliates, established the LG AI Research Institute at the group level in 2020. Following the development of the super-large AI 'Exaone' in 2021, LG launched the super-large AI alliance 'Expert AI Alliance,' established the North American LG AI Research Center (Michigan), and announced AI ethical principles in 2022. This year, LG also achieved the release of the super-large AI 'Exaone 2.0.'

CEO Gu hopes that LG will create many successful cases of utilizing AI in products, services, and organizational operations, and innovate customer experiences by applying AI technology to smart home and smart car solutions, online channels, and more. During his visit to Toronto, he visited the ‘Vector Institute,’ where Google’s deep learning, Uber’s autonomous driving, and Nvidia’s computer vision were born, and the quantum computing leading company ‘Xanadu Research Institute’ to explore the latest AI technology trends that can elevate LG’s AI competitiveness to the next level.

An LG official explained, "The battery, electric components, and OLED businesses, which have grown into LG’s core businesses, were prepared and invested in for 20 to 30 years to bear fruit today," adding, "There is a consensus among the management that the ABC sectors must be steadily prepared from now on to become LG’s future growth engines."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.