(LEAD) LG CNS Q3 operating profit up 15 pct led by AI, cloud biz growth - Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, Oct. 30 (Yonhap) -- LG CNS Co., the information technology affiliate of LG Group, on Friday said its operating profit rose 15 percent from a year earlier mainly led by the robust growth of its artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud businesses, the company said.

The IT firm reported an operating profit of 138.2 billion won (US$103.2 million) in the July-September period, according to its regulatory filing.

Sales were up 9.3 percent from a year earlier to 1.66 trillion won, while net profit fell 21.1 percent on-year to 83 billion won, mainly due to unfavorable exchange rates.

LG CNS said its AI and cloud businesses, of which sales rose 9.3 percent on-year, led the overall growth in operating profits, and plans to maintain its agentic AI service and AI infrastructure businesses as the two main pillars to strengthen competitiveness, it added.

To that end, the telecom operator said it acquired tangible assets worth around 380 billion won, to secure graphic processing units needed to run and build AI factories. It has also partnered with the New York-based venture fund General Atlantic to jointly invest in ventures involving corporate software and AI, the company added.

In the area of physical AI, LG CNS said it is conducting on-site test of its robot training and operation platform, PhysicalWorks, and plans to strengthen cooperation with global big tech companies, including Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.