Boosted by growth in its artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud businesses, LG CNS posted strong results in the first quarter.
LG CNS said on the 30th that first-quarter revenue rose 8.6% from a year earlier to 1.315 trillion won. Operating profit climbed 19.4% in the same period to 94.2 billion won.
The AI and cloud businesses drove first-quarter results. Revenue from AI and cloud increased 6.7% on-year to 765.4 billion won, accounting for about 58% of total revenue. An LG CNS official said, "In AI, we have diversified our portfolio across all industries, including public, defense, finance, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and bio, shipbuilding, and defense industry," adding, "In particular, we are strengthening our AX (AI transformation) business by offering various services where multi-agents based on agentic AI collaborate autonomously."
Recently, LG CNS has been accelerating its push into the enterprise AX market based on cooperation with the three global cloud providers and global big tech companies such as OpenAI and Palantir. Since February, LG CNS has begun supplying ChatGPT Enterprise and secured about 10 corporations as customers. With Palantir, the two companies' forward deployed engineer (FDE) dedicated teams will collaborate to jointly identify high value-added AX projects.
In cloud, results improved centering on the data center design, build, and operate (DBO) business, the company said. Recently, LG CNS won projects worth over 1 trillion won just at the Samsong data center, and it has also moved to diversify DBO revenue models through new businesses, such as unveiling a modular AI data center that can be built within six months.
In smart engineering, first-quarter revenue rose 10.4% on-year to 227.8 billion won.
Within this, smart logistics saw revenue increase as projects to build logistics automation centers for beauty, food, fashion, and defense clients proceeded smoothly, LG CNS said. In particular, the "mobile shuttle," which applies AI and mathematical optimization technology, won business for Paris Baguette's U.S. plant and LG affiliates' North American plants, laying the groundwork for global market expansion.
In smart factory, projects won in defense industry, shipbuilding, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals converted into revenue, contributing to results. A company official said, "Demand is increasing in new industries such as food, medical, electronics, and consumer goods for the lightweight smart factory solution launched last year."
Elsewhere, first-quarter revenue in digital business services increased 11.9% on-year to 321.9 billion won. Stable execution of next-generation IT system construction and integration projects for major finance clients such as NH NongHyup Bank, Mirae Asset Life Insurance, Shinhan Investment & Securities, Korea Securities Depository (KSD), and Hanwha General Insurance had a significant impact.
This year, LG CNS plans to fully scale up its robotics business, named as a next growth engine. In physical AI, it aims to accelerate robot commercialization by promoting a "full-stack RX service" that combines an industry-specialized RFM (robot foundation model) with hardware and a platform.
For hardware, it made a strategic investment in the U.S. robot company "Dexmate" and is building a diverse product lineup, including bipedal humanoids, quadruped robots, and wheel-type humanoids. LG CNS plans to unveil its in-house robot training and operations platform next month and begin full-scale business expansion.
It will also continue to expand its overseas business. The overseas (Indonesia) AI data center won by LG CNS is slated for completion at the end of this year. In enterprise solutions, it plans to target markets in Japan and the United States centered on two "PerfecTwin" solutions. The finance DX business will also be developed in the Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) region.