LG to assemble AI data-center chillers in Virginia, creating 164 jobs

LG Electronics will build its first American chillers in a building that is already standing. The company plans to assemble large air-cooled chillers for AI data centers at 460 Commerce Center, a 352,000-square-foot facility in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, creating 164 jobs on $63.9 million of capital investment, according to Gov. Abigail Spanberger's office. Production is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2027.

The runway comes from the site. W.M. Jordan Co. completed the building in August 2025 as a speculative project inside Shirley T. Holland Intermodal Park, a 1,200-acre business park in Windsor owned by the county, Virginia Business reported. Because LG is moving into a finished building, the plant appears positioned for a compressed hiring period before first output.

Virginia is one of three sites in the expansion. LG said it will invest a combined KRW 150 billion in the new U.S. facility and in larger air-cooled chiller lines at its existing factories in Pyeongtaek and Changwon, South Korea. The Korean plants are adopting a conveyor-based system designed for mass production, according to the company. The state, for its part, describes the Virginia operation as an "HVAC systems assembly facility." Taken together, the two descriptions suggest high-volume line production staying in Korea, with Virginia positioned as the regional assembly base close to North American customers.

The product is specific. An LG spokesperson told Virginia Business that the plant will assemble the company's new air-cooled centrifugal chiller, announced earlier in September, which uses oil-free magnetic bearing compressors and is billed as able to resume cooling a data center within three minutes of power being restored. The governor's office said the units use cool outdoor air to reduce the load on the compressor.

Water may matter as much as speed. John I. Taylor, a senior vice president at LG Electronics USA, said air-cooled chillers are designed to use less water than traditional water-cooled systems. Water use is a live issue in Virginia. In July, Google said it would use air cooling at its first data center in Botetourt County, and was considering it for future sites, after community opposition to the project's potential consumption of more than 8 million gallons of water a day at full buildout, Virginia Business reported.

LG's case for the investment rests on where data centers are being built. Chris Ahn, president of LG Electronics USA's Air Conditioning Technology division, said more than half of the world's AI data centers are in North America, and the company noted that Virginia hosts a large concentration of facilities run by major technology companies. LG also cited a projection from research firm Omdia: global data center capacity rising from 226 GW in 2026 to 420 GW in 2030, with 60 percent of the added capacity expected in North America. That figure is a forecast, not a booked order book. Four days after the Virginia announcement, LG said it had signed a long-term agreement with U.S.-based Air Control Concepts to supply cooling for AI data centers with more than 5 GW of capacity.

The state is selling speed of staffing as much as anything. "With our robust talent pipeline and top-ranked workforce training programs, Virginia is the ideal place for LG to establish a highly skilled, quickly scaled presence," said Carrie Chenery, Virginia's secretary of commerce and trade. Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors Chairman Rudolph Jefferson named the Hampton Roads Workforce Council among the parties that helped land the project, alongside the Port of Virginia, the Hampton Roads Alliance and W.M. Jordan. Dominion Energy helped deliver an energy solution for the site, the governor's office said.