LG Innotek profit jumps 136% on camera, chip demand

LG Innotek said its January-to-March operating profit rose 136% to 295.3 billion won (US$201 million), beating estimates as demand for smartphone camera modules and premium semiconductor.

Revenue rose 11.1% to a first-quarter record of 5.5 trillion won (US$3.76 billion), below the 5.6 trillion won (US$3.79 billion) consensus, while operating profit topped the 236.9 billion won (US$161 million) estimate.

Growth was driven by optical and package solutions, supported by smartphone, automotive and chip demand.

The mobility unit had an order backlog of 19.2 trillion won (US$13.1 billion) at the end of 2025.

🔗 Source: The Korea Herald

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Substrates are becoming central to chip growth

LG Innotek’s package solutions revenue rose 16%. That fits a wider advanced integrated circuit (IC) substrates market expected to grow from US$16.73 billion in 2024 to US$37.20 billion by 2033 1.
Substrates now act as a “central backbone” for AI chips. They handle power delivery plus signal integrity, which shape performance and reliability 2.
LG Innotek is using its lead in mobile substrates to move into higher-value Flip-Chip Ball Grid Array (FC-BGA) products 3. Its mobile lineup includes radio frequency-system in package (RF-SiP) plus 5G antenna in package (AiP) 3. The company is also targeting FC-BGA substrates for PC and server central processing units (CPUs) plus graphics processing units (GPUs) 3. It is extending that push to networking chips and automotive system-on-chip (SoC) processors 3.

Component makers have more influence in AI chips

The results capture an industry shift. Chip gains now depend more on packaging and substrates as traditional chip miniaturization nears physical limits 3.
That gives component makers like LG Innotek more sway because their manufacturing capacity can shape the product plans of AI chip designers.
Complex substrates for chiplet-based architectures, which split processors into smaller connected chip blocks, are drawing government money 1. One example is a US$1.6 billion U.S. fund for packaging infrastructure focused on FC-BGA and Flip-Chip Chip Scale Package (FC-CSP) substrates 1.