Companies in Seoul

LG Electronics started in 1958 as GoldStar, making the first radios produced in Korea, and spent its first decades as a scrappy manufacturer of appliances for a recovering nation. Today it is a global consumer electronics and appliance giant — but its most telling transformation is in display: LG is the world's leading maker of OLED TV panels, the technology it bet the television business on when rivals stuck with LCD. The company's portfolio spans four pillars: home entertainment (OLED and QNED TVs), home appliances (washers, refrigerators, and the InstaView and Objet lines), vehicle components (in-vehicle infotainment and EV powertrains), and B2B solutions (commercial displays and HVAC). Its appliance business is a consistent global #1 or #2 in most categories, and its vehicle-solutions division is now a top-tier supplier to automakers worldwide. Headquartered in Seoul with about 74,000 employees and annual revenue near ₩84 trillion (US$62 billion), LG is also unusual for a consumer company: it manufactures the vast majority of what it sells in its own factories — compressors, motors, panels, and electronics — giving it a vertical integration most rivals outsource away.

Hyundai Motor's rise is one of the fastest in automotive history: founded in 1967, the company built its first car with Ford technology, launched its own model in 1975 (the Pony, designed by Italy's Giugiaro), and exported it to Latin America and Africa — markets where the cheapest cars mattered. The 'export or die' strategy of founder Chung Ju-yung, who had built Hyundai from a construction company, drove the brand's early global push. The modern Hyundai Motor Group — including the Kia brand and luxury marque Genesis — is the world's third-largest automaker, selling over 7 million vehicles a year. Its current lineup ranges from the affordable Accent and Elantra to the premium Genesis sedans and SUVs, and the company has become a leader in electric vehicles: the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 won global car of the year awards, and Hyundai's E-GMP platform is one of the most advanced EV architectures in production. With about 70,000 employees at Hyundai Motor alone (over 280,000 across the group) and annual revenue near US$120 billion, Hyundai has transformed its image from cheap import to design-and-tech leader, winning over Western consumers with long warranties and bold design. Its US plant in Alabama, factories in Europe and India, and aggressive investment in hydrogen fuel cells and robotics make Hyundai one of the most diversified bets in the global auto industry.

LG Energy Solution is one of the world's largest manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems, spun off from LG Chem in December 2020. Headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, the company employs about 33,000 people and supplies batteries to automakers including Tesla, General Motors, Hyundai, and Volkswagen. The company operates gigafactories in Korea, China, Poland, the United States, Indonesia, and Canada, producing pouch-type and cylindrical cells with NCMA and LFP chemistries. Its joint ventures — including Ultium Cells with General Motors and BlueOval SK with Ford — anchor North America's emerging EV battery supply chain, while its ESS business delivers grid-scale storage systems worldwide. For buyers in automotive and energy storage, LG Energy Solution is a Tier-1 battery supplier with proven mass-production quality, a global manufacturing footprint, and aggressive investment in next-generation technologies including solid-state and dry-electrode processes.