LG Electronics reported a preliminary third-quarter operating profit of 781.80 billion won ($584.4 million), missing analyst expectations by roughly 24% and sending LG stock down more than 9% on Wednesday.
That result marked a 13.5% year-over-year gain, the company said. On the top line, revenue climbed 8.9% to 23.827 trillion won over the July-to-September period. Sequentially, however, operating profit dropped 50.5% while revenue held essentially steady.
Analysts had expected operating profit of 1.028 trillion won for the quarter, according to a FactSet-compiled consensus estimate cited by The Wall Street Journal.
LG attributed the weaker performance to geopolitical instability and macroeconomic volatility. Despite the pressures, the company said its home-appliance, vehicle-component, and TV units each turned a profit during the period, and that enterprise-wide efficiency measures cushioned the impact of rising logistics, raw-material, and overhead expenses.
LG stock has nonetheless more than doubled in value in 2026, buoyed by the company's push into artificial intelligence and adjacent growth areas.
Earlier this week, LG secured a contract to supply cooling systems for AI data centers in the United States. Through the deal with AIR Control Concepts, a Virginia-based data-center platform provider, the company said it will deliver chillers to AI data centers totaling more than 5 gigawatts of capacity. To serve that demand, the company intends to open a new Virginia manufacturing facility, with output scheduled to start in the first half of 2027.
The company projected that annual new contract wins for data-center cooling solutions would reach several billion dollars by the end of 2026, building on the $426 million in such contracts it secured in the first half of the year. LG anticipates hitting its $680 million chiller business revenue goal for 2027 sooner than originally planned.
The company is also expanding its work with Nvidia in physical AI. Parent LG Group disclosed in August that the two firms are collaborating on a humanoid robot slated for a first-quarter 2027 debut. Components for the robot — among them actuators, sensors, and batteries — will come from LG group affiliates including LG Electronics, LG Innotek, and LG Energy Solution, the conglomerate said.
