[Click eStock] "Focus on AI Monetization... LG Uplus Has 32% Upside Potential"

Mirae Asset Securities: "Target Price at 19,000 Won"
AI Services and Data Center Expansion Drive Growth

Mirae Asset Securities announced on July 23 that it is maintaining its target price for LG Uplus at 19,000 won, and its investment rating at 'Buy', citing the monetization of artificial intelligence (AI) services and the expansion of its data center business. The analysis suggests a 31.9% upside potential compared to the closing price of 14,400 won on July 21.

Yujin Choi, a researcher at Mirae Asset Securities, estimated that LG Uplus’s sales for Q2 would reach 3.9 trillion won (up 1.6% quarter-on-quarter and 0.5% year-on-year), with operating profit at 340.3 billion won (up 25.0% quarter-on-quarter and 11.7% year-on-year). The operating margin is expected to reach 8.8%, about 9.7% higher than the consensus (the average forecasts by securities firms). She attributed the strong performance to the efficiency of major expenses such as marketing, labor, and depreciation, an increase in 5G subscribers, growth in the company’s own data centers in Pyeongchon, Paju, and Seocho, and some one-off gains.

On March 2nd (local time), at the Fira Gran Via exhibition center in Barcelona, Spain, during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026, LG Uplus's AI agent "IXI-O" demonstrated a robot that puts laundry into a basket, showcasing the future envisioned by the AI.

The company’s consolidated sales for this year are forecast at 15.9 trillion won (up 3.1% year-on-year), with operating profit at 1.2 trillion won (up 36.3% year-on-year). Structural cost competitiveness and the monetization of its AI-related business divisions are expected to drive this growth in operating profit. Starting in the third quarter, the full-fledged rollout of the AI assistant service ‘IXI Pro’ is expected to enhance its capabilities in the B2C (business-to-consumer) sector.

The expansion of the data center business is also noteworthy. The company’s current installed data center capacity stands at 163 megawatts (MW), comprised of 140MW of proprietary capacity and 25MW of leased capacity. By 2030, the company plans to expand this to 400MW, with 270MW of proprietary capacity and 130MW of leased capacity. The company also predicts an increase in demand for GPU-exclusive data centers, driven by the rising computational requirements of artificial intelligence.

Choi commented, “With increased profit leverage, operating profit is expected to surge this year. The strong upward trend in shareholder returns will continue through flexible share buybacks and cancellations, and the expansion of high value-added AX (AI Transformation) services, as well as greater competitiveness in AI infrastructure, will also be sustained.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.