Cooling infrastructure · NEWS BRIEF

LG plans its first U.S. AI-data-center chiller factory in Virginia

By Grid & Silicon · Published October 1, 2026
Source: LG Electronics company announcement via PR Newswire · October 1, 2026

What happened

LG Electronics says it will establish its first U.S. chiller factory on a 43-acre site in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, adding a North American production base for equipment intended to remove heat from AI data centers.

What LG is proposing

The planned 350,000-square-foot factory will produce air-cooled chillers, with production scheduled to begin in the first half of 2027. Virginia officials said the project is expected to create more than 150 jobs. LG described the location as a way to serve North American customers faster, citing access to the Port of Virginia, roads, rail and a large regional concentration of data centers.

LG also plans to expand air-cooled chiller lines at its Pyeongtaek and Changwon plants in South Korea. The company says it will invest a combined KRW 150 billion across the new U.S. facility and the two Korean factories, including conveyor-based production intended to increase manufacturing throughput.

Where a chiller fits in the cooling chain

A chiller is part of the heat-rejection system outside the servers themselves. LG’s broader “Chip-to-Chiller” portfolio starts with cold plates that absorb heat directly from processors, then uses coolant distribution units to manage the liquid loop and chillers to move heat out of that loop. The Virginia plant is specifically described as an air-cooled chiller factory; it is not a semiconductor plant or an AI data center.

Locating production closer to major data-center markets can shorten delivery and service distances for equipment that must arrive alongside electrical and mechanical systems. That coordination matters because a server hall cannot operate at design load unless its heat-removal equipment is installed and commissioned.

What remains unknown

The announcement describes an investment plan, not a completed factory. LG does not state that construction has begun, identify an opening date beyond the first-half 2027 production target, or disclose the plant’s annual chiller output, order backlog or named data-center customers.

LG also cites an Omdia forecast that global data-center capacity will rise from 226 gigawatts in 2026 to 420 gigawatts in 2030. That forecast is a third-party estimate repeated by the company, not a Grid & Silicon projection. Actual demand for the factory will depend on campus construction schedules and customer orders.

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