en.Wedoany.com Reported - South Korea's LG Chem plans to invest 15 trillion won in R&D by 2035, focusing on nurturing future growth businesses such as semiconductors, mobility, robot materials, and innovative anticancer drugs. According to the plan, LG Chem will allocate 70% of its 15 trillion won R&D investment to semiconductors, mobility, and robot materials to strengthen the proportion of its high-value-added materials business.
This mid-to-long-term growth strategy points to a further restructuring of LG Chem's business portfolio. The global chemical industry faces challenges such as oversupply, intensifying competition, and pressure on profitability from traditional chemicals. LG Chem aims to maintain the competitiveness of its existing businesses while expanding into high-growth areas with higher technological barriers and stronger customer loyalty. The company has set a target of achieving a double-digit operating profit margin by 2030.
Semiconductor materials are a key focus of LG Chem's future investment. The company will concentrate on enhancing competitiveness in advanced packaging materials, expanding the development of high-value-added products such as adhesives for packaging, low-dielectric materials, thermal management materials, and glass substrates. With the growing demand for AI semiconductors, high-performance computing, and advanced packaging, the role of materials companies in chip packaging, heat dissipation, signal integrity, and substrate technology is increasing.
LG Chem has previously stated its goal to expand its electronic materials business to 2 trillion won by 2030. This business primarily covers semiconductors, automotive electronics, and next-generation displays, with core materials including PID, DAF, and CCL. The company has integrated its advanced electronic materials R&D organizations into its advanced materials research system to accelerate the launch of new material product portfolios.
Mobility and robot materials are also key directions in this strategy. LG Chem plans to expand its business scope from electric vehicles and future mobility materials to robot structural materials, precision drive materials, and adhesive materials. With the development of electric vehicles, autonomous driving, service robots, and industrial robots, demand for lightweight structural components, heat-resistant materials, adhesive materials, and precision component materials will continue to increase.
The growth logic for robot materials stems from robots transitioning from demonstration and validation to real-world deployment. Humanoid robots, logistics robots, and industrial robots need to balance weight, strength, durability, drive precision, safety, and cost, creating new opportunities for high-performance engineering plastics, composite materials, elastic materials, adhesive materials, and thermal management materials. By incorporating robot materials into its future growth axis, LG Chem is signaling its early positioning in the physical AI hardware supply chain.
To support the advancement of new businesses, LG Chem has established a new business development organization directly under the CEO. The company also plans to pursue external growth strategies, including mergers and acquisitions, within its available funding capacity to accelerate business expansion. For materials companies, combining internal R&D with external M&A can help shorten the validation cycle for new materials and gain faster access to target customer supply chains.
However, this plan is a mid-to-long-term R&D and business transformation roadmap, and the capital investment does not necessarily mean that the related materials businesses have already generated significant revenue. Semiconductor, robot, and mobility materials typically require processes such as customer certification, reliability testing, production line qualification, and volume supply. Actual contributions will depend on technological maturity, production capacity, and the adoption pace of downstream customers.
Key areas to watch going forward include LG Chem's progress in developing advanced semiconductor packaging materials, the advancement of its electronic materials business toward the 2 trillion won target, the pace of productization of robot structural and drive materials, and whether the company will strengthen key technologies through M&A. As the AI semiconductor, future mobility, and robotics industries accelerate, high-value-added materials will become a crucial pillar supporting LG Chem's business transformation.
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