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South Korea's major display panel maker LG Display is stepping up its investments in data security and artificial intelligence (AI), with LG Group focusing on its future growth engines such as organic light emitting diodes (OLED), batteries, and mobility.

LG Display acquired a 5.9% stake in Duality Technologies, a US-based privacy-focused data collaboration solutions provider, for 9.2 billion won ($7.75 million) in July, said industry sources on Friday. It also made an additional investment of 18.3 billion won in SoftBank Ventures' Future Innovation Private Equity Fund III and 2.3 billion won in Sierra Ventures' twelfth fund.

“The investment in Duality Technologies has been made to strengthen AI and information security capabilities in the process of developing new OLED technologies,” said an official at LG Display. “For example, applying AI to the OLED production and inspection process may minimize defects or errors in a product.”

LG Display's recent investment in Future Innovation Private Equity Fund III came a few months after the display maker injected 4.5 billion won into the same fund in March, with its investment in the fund totaling 22.8 billion won this year. The fund, which was created by SoftBank Ventures, focuses on investing in promising AI startups.

AI-related investments by LG affiliates are led by LG Technology Ventures, the venture capital arm of LG Group. LG Technology Ventures was established in Silicon Valley in 2018 with contributions from five LG affiliates - LG Electronics, LG Display, LG Chem, LG Uplus, and LG CNS.

In 2019, the conglomerate’s four affiliates - LG Electronics, LG Chem, LG Uplus, and LG CNS - jointly invested 20 billion won in the Growth Acceleration Fund, which was created by SoftBank Group to make investments in startups globally with a particular focus on Asia.

Founded by world-renowned cryptographers and expert data scientists, Duality empowers organizations to securely collaborate on sensitive data with their business ecosystem: customers, suppliers, and partners. By operationalizing Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), Duality enables secure analysis and AI on encrypted data, while complying with data privacy regulations and protecting valuable IP.

LG Display has started betting on security solution companies amid a growing importance of information security in the process of developing new OLED technologies. The company is in need of strengthening information security capabilities after a liquid crystal display (LCD) technology leak from Chinese companies in the past.

LG Display will pump up production, with its plant in Guangzhou, China, expanding capacity. It also will strengthen its OLED and plastic OLED businesses to offset declines in LCD revenue and further boost profits. (Reporting by Hyun-ji Sohn)