LG AI Researcher

LG Group's AI research organization develops the domestic AI model EXAONE.

LG AI Research Institute is a group-level AI research organization established by LG Group and is developing EXAONE, a large domestic AI model. It serves as the brain that leads the AI transition across LG affiliates, including electronics, chemicals, and communications.

ExaOne is one of the representative domestic models that handles both Korean and English, and has increased its presence in the domestic developer ecosystem by releasing recent versions as open-weight. In particular, it is characterized by its aim to be an expert AI that applies AI to industrial field problems of its affiliates, such as new drug development and material discovery.

In the Sovereign AI debate over whether Korea should have its own foundation model, it is often mentioned as a representative example of the domestic camp along with Naver.

✅ Strengths

• It is growing the ecosystem by releasing ExaOne, a representative domestic model, as an open-weight
• There is a practical stage for applying AI to manufacturing, chemical and bio sites of LG affiliates
• It is receiving stable research investment at the group level.

⚠️ Limits

• There is a performance gap with the global front-line model
• Because the group is focused on internal demand, external market expansion is relatively slow
• Compared to global big tech, the computing infrastructure and investment scale are small.