[E-Daily Reporter JAEMIN SONG ] LGELECTRONICS has secured a long-term contract to supply data center cooling solutions totaling 5 gigawatts (GW) in North America, the world’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) data center market. Although the contract value has not been disclosed, it is estimated to be in the trillions of won, given the scale of the supply. As the cooling market expands rapidly alongside the growth of AI data centers, LGELECTRONICS appears to be accelerating its push into the North American market in earnest.

According to LGELECTRONICS on the 5th, LGELECTRONICS USA recently signed a long-term supply agreement (LTA) with “AIR Control Concept” (“AIR”), a North American infrastructure platform company, for chillers intended for AI data centers (AIDCs). Under this agreement, LGELECTRONICS will sequentially supply cooling solutions, including high-efficiency chillers, to AIDCs with a total capacity of 5 GW.

The specific contract value was not disclosed. Since the supply value varies depending on the data center’s location, facility configuration, and product specifications, it is difficult to convert the 5 GW into a uniform monetary amount. However, if we simply estimate the supply value for AIDC chillers at approximately 500 to 600 billion won per 1 GW, the total supply value under this contract is estimated to be around 3 trillion won.

5 GW represents a significant scale even within the global data center market. According to market research firm Omdia, the power capacity required for data centers worldwide is projected to increase by 108 GW, from 226 GW this year to 334 GW next year. The 5 GW secured by LGELECTRONICS in this deal accounts for approximately 4.6% of next year’s projected increase.

The contracting party, AIR, is an infrastructure platform company that oversees the entire process—including design, construction, public procurement, and aftermarket services—for AIDCs in North America, such as the United States and Canada. Through its data center subsidiary, AMC (AIR Mission Critical), it executes large-scale projects and counts major data center operators among its clients.

Through this long-term contract, LGELECTRONICS has secured a stable supply base in the North American AIDC market, moving beyond one-off project wins. In particular, as the number of high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) used for AI computing surges, data center power density and heat generation are increasing, making cooling equipment increasingly critical.

While existing data centers primarily used air cooling—which circulates cool air—the practice of combining this with liquid cooling, which directly dissipates heat using cold water, has been rapidly gaining traction recently.

In response, LGELECTRONICS and LG Air are discussing plans to expand their product portfolio to include core liquid cooling equipment such as cooling water distribution units (CDUs). LGELECTRONICS plans to broaden its business scope to become a “Chip to Chiller” total solutions provider, covering the entire spectrum of data center thermal management—from air cooling to liquid cooling.

LGELECTRONICS’ AIDC cooling business is also growing rapidly. The company has accumulated 60 years of experience in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) engineering at facilities requiring high reliability, such as nuclear power plants and large hospitals. Starting this year, it is actively supplying and installing cooling solutions for a major North American AIDC project it secured last year.

In addition to North America, the company has established a track record of supplying data center cooling solutions in the Global South, including the Middle East and Indonesia. LGELECTRONICS’ strategy is to expand its AIDC total solutions business by combining its cooling technology with the “One LG” integrated infrastructure solution, which pools the group’s collective capabilities.

Market growth is also rapid. Market research firm Fortune Business Insights forecasts that the global AIDC market will grow by approximately 26% annually, expanding to about $133.5 billion (approximately 185 trillion won) by 2034.

LGELECTRONICS’ order intake for AIDC cooling solutions in the first half of this year has already exceeded 600 billion won. The company expects cumulative order intake to reach the trillions of won by the end of the year. Bolstered by this large-scale, long-term supply contract and other factors, the company anticipates that it will achieve its target of 1 trillion won in chiller business revenue—originally set for the end of 2027—ahead of schedule.

Brad Hops, CEO of Air, said, “Thanks to LGELECTRONICS’ high-efficiency chiller technology, we are now able to provide solutions that have been validated during the construction of AI data center portfolios.”

Lee Jae-sung, President of LGELECTRONICS’ ES Business Division, said, “Based on LGELECTRONICS’ differentiated technological capabilities—including high-efficiency chillers and high-performance liquid cooling solutions—as well as our rapidly expanding experience in supplying large-scale data centers, we will lead the global AIDC cooling market.”