LG CNS invests in Cha Biotech to scale AI-driven healthcare

LG CNS CEO Hyun Shin-gyun, right, and Cha Bio Group Vice Chairman Cha Won-tae pose after signing a strategic partnership. Courtesy of LG CNS
SEOUL, January 15 (AJP) - LG CNS said on Thursday it is moving to scale up its digital healthcare business through a strategic partnership with Cha Bio Group.

The IT services firm, led by Chief Executive Hyun Shin-gyun, said it signed a partnership agreement with Cha Biotech. The deal includes a 10 billion won ($7.4 million) equity investment and cooperation on artificial intelligence transformation and digital transformation projects.

Hyun and Cha Won-tae, vice chairman of Cha Bio Group, attended the signing ceremony along with other executives from both sides.

Cha Bio Group is a healthcare conglomerate spanning hospitals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology research and medical services. The group also operates hospitals and medical businesses overseas, including in the United States, Singapore, Australia and Japan.

LG CNS said it will establish a regular consultative body with Cha Bio to drive key AI and digital transformation initiatives. In the near term, the partners plan to migrate the group’s cloud infrastructure and build a smart big data platform that integrates data across operations.

They also plan to upgrade drug manufacturing facilities with AI-based systems to improve efficiency throughout the production process.

Over the mid to long term, the companies plan to jointly commercialize a “connected healthcare service,” a strategic growth area for Cha Bio. The service would use healthcare-specific AI models to analyze health and lifestyle data generated by hospitals, homes and wearable devices.

LG CNS said it plans to deploy “EXAONE,” a large language model developed by the LG AI Research Institute, to build a healthcare-focused smaller language model and implement a big data platform to collect and manage medical, genetic and lifestyle data.
Ryu Cheong-bit 기자 cbryu@economidaily.com