While traditional electronics businesses continue to maintain profitability, LG Electronics is seeing a new growth driver from AI data center cooling demand.

LG Electronics has just announced its business results for the third quarter of 2026 with consolidated revenue of 23.82 trillion won and operating profit of 781.9 billion won. In the first 9 months of the year, the group's revenue reached 71.38 trillion won, up 9.2% over the same period last year. Notably, operating profit increased by 55.9%, to 4.03 trillion won.

Despite geopolitical uncertainties and challenges from the global business environment, all four of LG's main business units recorded profits in the third quarter. The consumer electronics segment continued to maintain revenue of over 7,000 billion won for two consecutive quarters, while the vehicle solutions segment achieved the highest third quarter business results ever.

Notably, besides traditional fields, LG is promoting the development of new growth drivers, especially AI and robotic data center cooling solutions.

AI data center cooling orders increase 5-fold in one quarter

One of the most notable highlights in this report is the cooling solutions for AI data centers (AIDC). By the end of the third quarter of 2026, LG's accumulated order value in this field has exceeded 3,000 billion won, a sharp increase compared to about 600 billion won at the end of the second quarter.

To meet growing demand, the group plans to invest an additional 220 billion won to upgrade production facilities and expand supply capacity. This includes owning a strategic manufacturing facility in the US, located near large-scale AI data center clusters.

This is one of LG's notable expansion directions as the need for AI infrastructure is increasing. Instead of focusing solely on consumer electronics, the group is expanding into solutions that directly serve the operations of data centers.

In the field of robotics, LG Data Factory, introduced as the largest robot data factory in Korea, has begun partial operations. The company is also preparing infrastructure for mass production of actuators, and is seeking orders from global customers.

Another direction is AI smart home solution (AI Home). LG plans to cooperate with major technology companies to build an ecosystem based on the latest IoT technologies.

All four business segments are profitable

In the third quarter, Home Electronics Solutions Company (HS) achieved revenue of 7.04 trillion won and operating profit of 259.2 billion won. This result reflects the effectiveness of the strategy of parallel development of high-end products and mass segments. Although logistics and marketing costs increased, the company still maintained stable profits thanks to improved operational efficiency.

The Entertainment and Media (MS) segment recorded revenue of 5.02 trillion won, operating profit of 146.7 billion won, significantly improving over the same period. The main driver comes from sales of high-end products such as OLED TVs and growth in emerging markets.

Meanwhile, the Vehicle Solutions (VS) segment achieved revenue of 2.83 trillion won and operating profit of 190.3 billion won. Both indicators set the highest level ever for a third quarter, thanks to conversion of signed orders and growth from in-vehicle infotainment systems.

The Air Solutions (ES) segment achieved revenue of 2.17 trillion won and operating profit of 87.2 billion won. Revenue grew thanks to overseas commercial HVAC markets, although profits were partly impacted by capacity expansion costs.

Besides traditional businesses, LG's revenue from subscription services reached 760 billion won in the third quarter, up 8.6% over the same period. The B2B segment also increased by 3.4%, to 6.1 trillion won.

LG is cautious about fourth quarter prospects

Entering the fourth quarter of 2026, LG forecasts that the consumer electronics market will only have a limited recovery. TV demand may decline over the same period as high oil prices and interest rates affect consumer sentiment, while the cost of memory chips and display panels continues to create pressure.

In the vehicle segment, auto demand is also forecast to recover slowly. The company will focus on converting signed orders, while optimizing costs to maintain competitiveness.

With the air solutions segment, the top priority is to deliver large-scale AI data center cooling projects on schedule.

In the coming period, LG said it will continue to promote three business drivers including B2B, subscription services and online sales, while diversifying the supply chain and improving operational efficiency.

Nine-month results show that LG still maintains profitability in key business segments, while new areas such as AI data center cooling and robotics are being invested in to become long-term growth drivers.