LG Electronics is establishing its first U.S. chiller manufacturing facility, making another major HVAC investment around the growth of artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The new plant will cover approximately 350,000 square feet on a 43-acre site in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, with production scheduled to begin during the first half of 2027. LG plans to produce air-cooled chillers targeted at AI data-center applications.
The company says the U.S. project is part of a broader KRW 150 billion investment that also includes manufacturing expansions in South Korea.
Cooling Is Becoming AI Infrastructure
Data centers are changing the scale of commercial HVAC demand.
Omdia projects global data-center capacity to increase from approximately 226 GW in 2026 to 420 GW by 2030, with North America accounting for around 60% of the additional capacity.
LG is responding with what it calls a Chip-to-Chiller strategy, spanning conventional chillers, coolant-distribution units and direct-to-chip liquid cooling.
That moves LG beyond simply supplying mechanical cooling equipment.
It is increasingly positioning itself around the entire thermal-management chain connecting the computer chip to the central cooling plant.
Why Contractors and OEMs Should Watch
The Virginia factory is expected to create more than 150 jobs and gives LG domestic manufacturing capacity closer to North America's rapidly expanding data-center market.
That can matter for:
lead times,
project specifications,
parts availability,
and large multi-year cooling contracts.
It also increases competitive pressure on established commercial HVAC manufacturers already chasing data-center demand.
AI may be a software boom, but one of its largest physical constraints is cooling — and HVAC manufacturers are now building factories around that demand.
