LG Electronics accelerates robot push on back of record home appliance, vehicle component earnings

LG Electronics far exceeded market consensus in the second quarter, reaffirming the robust profitability of its core businesses. Strong earnings from its home appliance and vehicle component divisions provided the foundation, and the company plans to channel that strength into full-scale investment in robotics, one of its key future growth areas.

LG Electronics said Tuesday it posted sales of 23.83 trillion won ($15.6 billion) and operating profit of 1.58 trillion won in the second quarter — both records for any second quarter in the company's history.

Behind the strong results was the simultaneous growth of LG Electronics' two flagship cash-generating businesses: the Home Appliance & Air Solution (HS) division, which serves consumers, and the Vehicle Component Solutions (VS) division, which serves business clients.

According to industry sources, the HS division set all-time quarterly records for both sales and operating profit in the second quarter, while the VS division turned in results approaching its own record performance from the first quarter.

Securities analysts estimate the two divisions combined generated roughly 11 trillion won in sales and nearly 800 billion won in operating profit.

The HS division's performance was driven by a two-track premium-and-volume-zone strategy that maintained steady results in advanced markets such as North America and Europe while diversifying sales into emerging markets including the Global South.

A partial refund of reciprocal tariffs contributed to the earnings improvement, but analysts said LG Electronics' underlying product competitiveness was the primary driver of its second-quarter results — particularly notable given the tariff headwinds and the scale of rivals' operating profit in their TV and home appliance segments.

The VS division appears to have secured both steady top-line growth and profitability by actively responding to rising demand for premium infotainment systems. Industry observers say the vehicle component business has entered what they describe as a "stable growth trajectory" capable of generating sustained profit.

The HS and VS divisions together crossed the 10 trillion won combined sales threshold in the first quarter and have continued to grow at a strong pace, providing a solid financial base for LG Electronics to make bold investments in new businesses such as physical AI that the company has identified as its future growth engines.

LG Electronics recently established a Robotics Business Center reporting directly to the CEO and appointed Song Si-yong as its head in a targeted personnel move — a decision reflecting the strategic importance the company places on robotics and its commitment to developing the business.

The center is expected to consolidate the core capabilities needed to commercialize robotics — from identifying business opportunities to managing supply chain and manufacturing operations — and to accelerate growth in earnest.

CEO Ryu Jae-cheol said at the company's annual shareholder meeting in March that he intended to make this year "the inaugural year for the full-scale launch of the robot business" and would execute detailed strategies with urgency. The company plans to design and produce actuators — components that account for more than 40 percent of a robot's cost — in-house, and said it would establish a mass production system before the end of this year.

LG Electronics is also carrying out electrical infrastructure and zone-by-zone construction work to convert its Yangjae R&D Campus into a robot data factory. Industry estimates suggest related investment will exceed 400 billion won by 2030. The facility is expected to become the first and largest robot data factory in South Korea.

"The strong earnings from the home appliance and vehicle component businesses are feeding directly into large-scale investment in future core technologies such as physical AI, and that appears to be accelerating the company's shift toward a forward-looking business portfolio that can drive growth over the medium and long term," an industry official said.