LG CNS has joined the 'AI Materials Foundry,' a collaborative initiative for new material development featuring global tech giants such as Nvidia and Meta, as a founding member. This strategic move aims to accelerate AI transformation (AX) support for South Korean materials companies and drive innovation in industrial new materials. Through this partnership, LG CNS is expected to contribute significantly to the discovery of high-value new materials and play a crucial role in the global AI ecosystem.
LG CNS Becomes Founding Member of Global AI Materials Alliance
LG CNS, a leading South Korean IT company, has become a founding member of the 'AI Materials Foundry,' a global collaboration for new material development that includes tech giants like Nvidia and Meta. This move is set to significantly boost AI transformation (AX) for domestic materials companies and accelerate innovation in industrial new materials. The company will specifically collaborate with UK-based AI startup CuspAI to streamline the discovery and commercialization processes for new materials.
The AI Materials Foundry is a global alliance of companies and research institutions specializing in AI, chemistry, materials science, and computing infrastructure, dedicated to leveraging AI for breakthroughs in new material development. It currently comprises 48 global entities, including Nvidia, Meta, and AMD, alongside prominent materials companies such as 3M and Merck. Utilizing CuspAI's Agentic AI platform, the alliance provides the necessary infrastructure for the entire new material development lifecycle, from design and discovery to validation and commercialization. Its objective is to drastically reduce the cost and time involved in new material development by integrating high-quality experimental data, research networks, and computing infrastructure from its participating members.
CuspAI's Agentic AI Platform: Powering Innovation
Headquartered in London, CuspAI is an innovative startup that combines artificial intelligence with material science to accelerate the new material development process. The company has developed a platform that uses AI to design and explore optimized novel substances. Its advisory board includes Geoffrey Hinton, a 2024 Nobel laureate in Physics. CuspAI recently secured approximately $450 million (680 billion won) in investment, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as a key investor, valuing the company at about $3 billion (4 trillion won).
LG CNS plans to utilize CuspAI's Agentic AI platform to support companies pursuing new material discovery across advanced industries, including semiconductors, chemicals, and energy. The platform functions by allowing users to input desired conditions and properties for a material, such as compounds with excellent thermal stability or highly efficient carbon capture substances. Based on extensive experimental data trained by AI, the platform then generates and validates numerous candidate materials. For instance, Finnish chemical company Kemira successfully used this platform to shorten a development period that would typically take years down to just six months, exploring 300 trillion molecular structures to identify 20 new material candidates.
Supporting Domestic Manufacturing and Materials Firms, Enhancing IP Protection
As a platform delivery partner, LG CNS will actively support South Korean manufacturing and materials companies in developing new materials by leveraging the global research ecosystem, without the need for them to directly invest in expensive research equipment or extensive AI infrastructure. LG CNS will handle all aspects, from materials data processing and validation result interpretation to platform operation and maintenance. This comprehensive support allows client companies to conduct new material development projects continuously without requiring dedicated AI personnel.
Crucially, the CuspAI platform incorporates robust safeguards to protect against technology leakage and intellectual property (IP) infringement, which are paramount concerns for materials companies. Client data is isolated and managed on dedicated servers, ensuring it is not reused for AI model training. Furthermore, the platform clearly stipulates that the client companies retain ownership of any patents related to new materials, thereby securely protecting their core assets. In new material development, where the discovery of even a single material can dictate the pace of industrial innovation, AI-driven acceleration of development time will be a critical factor for corporate competitiveness.
Jang Min-yong, Vice President of LG CNS's Chemical/Battery Business Unit, stated, 'Improving cost and time efficiency in new material development is directly linked to a company's core competitiveness.' He emphasized that in an era where AI is no longer optional but essential, LG CNS will fulfill its role as an AX partner, enabling domestic manufacturing and materials companies to leverage a world-class AI-based new material research ecosystem to achieve tangible business results early.
