LG Group chief inspects business strategies in U.S.

[Courtesy of LG Corp.]

South Korea’s LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo visited Silicon Valley and other locations in the United States and met with key executives from major companies in the artificial intelligence (AI), bio, and clean technology (ABC) sectors.

According to LG Corp. on Sunday, Koo visited Silicon Valley and Tennessee over a four-day period starting on June 17 (local time). The trip was planned to review the conglomerate’s business strategies in North America.

Koo has been traveling to North America every year since 2019, the year after he took office, to engage in on-site management, with the exception of the Covid-19 pandemic period.

During the latest trip, he visited AI semiconductor design company Tenstorrent Inc. and AI humanoid robot startup Figure AI Inc. in Silicon Valley to examine the AI supply chain, including semiconductor design and robotics.

When visiting Tenstorrent on June 20, he met with its Chief Executive Officer Jim Keller to discuss trends in AI semiconductors and the company’s technologies and exchange views on the impact of AI expansion on the semiconductor industry.

Keller is renowned in the semiconductor design field, having worked on high-performance semiconductor designs such as Apple Inc.‘s A chip used in iPhones, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD)’s Ryzen CPU for PCs, and Tesla Inc.‘s autonomous driving semiconductor design.

LG Electronics Inc. previously collaborated with Tenstorrent to develop semiconductors for TVs and other products.

At Figure AI, Koo met with Brett Adcock, the company’s founder and CEO.

Figure AI is a high-profile startup that has attracted investments from Microsoft Corp., OpenAI Inc., Nvidia Corp., and Amazon.com Inc., among others, and LG Technology Ventures LLC and LG Innotek Co. also participated in early investments.

Koo observed the operation of Figure AI’s humanoid robot Figure 01, which was unveiled in March this year.

He also paid a visit to LG Technology Ventures, a global startup incubator in Silicon Valley, to meet with investors and examine the products and technologies of startups like Inworld AI and Eko Health Inc., which are backed by LG Technology Ventures.

LG Technology Ventures is LG’s corporate venture capital (CVC), operating a fund of approximately 1 trillion won ($719.74 million) contributed by seven major LG affiliates.

He also traveled to LG Electronics‘ North America Innovation Center (LG NOVA) to receive updates on new business development initiatives.

“We need to strengthen our product portfolio and build a robust supply chain to provide differentiated customer value,” Koo said. “Let’s make big steps to challenge and leap forward to win the long race of sustainable growth.”

Koo also inspected the production status at LG Group‘s major North American bases.

In Tennessee, he reviewed the business strategies of key affiliates such as LG Electronics, LG Energy Solution Ltd., and LG Chem Ltd.