ROBOTNESS
News

Wire

Every funding round, launch and paper, as it's reported.

11 stories
yesterday
PolicyKR

Korea plans to put 200,000 AI robots into service by 2030, starting with more than 1,700 government purchases in 2027

South Korea's National Advanced Strategic Industry Committee adopted a plan on September 30 to deploy 200,000 AI robots by 2030, about 15,000 through public procurement and 185,000 through private adoption. The state will buy more than 1,700 units in 2027 for public safety, labour-short sites and education, and will widen purchases to public enterprises and local governments from 2028.

21 days ago
PolicyKR

Korea plans more than fivefold rise in humanoid core-parts budget to 62 billion won for 2027

South Korea's finance ministry said the 2027 budget proposal raises spending on sensors, actuators and humanoid batteries to 62 billion won from 11.6 billion won, after the three were named super-innovation leading projects in July. The money will fund technology development and field demonstrations, inside an industry ministry budget that rises 40.5% to 13.2573 trillion won.

Aug 28, 2026
FundingKR

Korea's National Growth Fund puts 150 billion won into robot-hand maker Wonik Robotics in a 350 billion won raise

Wonik Robotics will issue 349.99998 billion won of convertible preferred shares to Korea Development Bank's Advanced Strategic Industry Fund and an IMM Credit Solution vehicle, according to the Financial Services Commission and a Wonik Holdings filing. The money funds a robot-hand factory and AX center in Wanju, R&D and acquisitions, while Wonik Holdings grants investors a put option if the unit does not list within six years.

Aug 14, 2026
PartnershipKR

LG and NVIDIA sign robotics pact; LG to unveil bipedal humanoid built with group parts in early 2027

LG Group and NVIDIA signed a strategic collaboration MOU on Aug. 13 covering robots, AI factories and mobility, LG Corp. said. LG will unveil a bipedal humanoid on Jetson Thor and Isaac GR00T in the first quarter of 2027 using LG Electronics actuators, LG Innotek sensors and LG Energy Solution batteries, and will test its wheeled CLOiD on a Tennessee washing-machine line this year.

Jul 17, 2026
ResearchKR

RSS 2026's top paper, FlashSAC, cuts humanoid walking training on one GPU from hours to minutes

FlashSAC, an off-policy reinforcement learning method from a team spanning Holiday Robotics, KAIST, KRAFTON, TU Darmstadt, KTH and others, won the Outstanding Paper Award at Robotics: Science and Systems 2026 in Sydney. The authors report training a Unitree G1 walking policy in about 20 minutes on a single RTX 5090, against about three hours for the standard PPO method.

Jun 29, 2026
PolicyKR

Korea makes physical AI one of three national mega projects, aiming for global top three in AI robots by 2030

Seoul on June 29 named physical AI alongside semiconductors and AI data centres as a national mega project and set out a '3M' plan for AI robots. The plan targets ten industry-specific humanoids commercialised by 2028, 1,000 robot deployments a year, data factories for ten sectors and a robot foundry in Saemangeum tied to Hyundai Motor Group investment.

May 29, 2026
IndustryKR

Korea's AI robot alliance reaches 280 members in its first year, with shipyard and refinery humanoids aimed at 2027 and 2028

Korea's trade ministry said on May 29 that the AI robot division of its M.AX manufacturing alliance now has about 280 members and is running industrial humanoid pilots with HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, SK Energy and BGF. It also highlighted Korean robot foundation models, a 13 km/h humanoid lower body from KAIST and plans for a 500 billion won fund with a mandatory humanoid share.

May 18, 2026
ResearchKR

Korea launches 50.4 billion won humanoid programme with KIST and three LG affiliates, putting solid-state batteries in robots

Korea's science ministry on May 18 started a five-year, 50.4 billion won programme to build a national AI humanoid platform led by KIST, with LG Electronics, LG AI Research and LG Energy Solution among the partners. The plan includes a vision, touch, language and action model, an all-solid-state battery for humanoids and a field test of at least 20 robots in care settings.

Apr 29, 2026
BusinessKR

Doosan Robotics sets 2028 for an industrial humanoid after NVIDIA talks, then rebuilds its Europe base in Frankfurt

Doosan Robotics said on April 29 that it will launch robot solutions on its Agentic Robot O/S in 2027 and an industrial humanoid in 2028, after hosting NVIDIA's Madison Huang to discuss linking that software with NVIDIA's simulation and training stack. In May it moved its European office to Frankfurt with local repair and training, and in June it unveiled the PalletizHD+ palletiser in Chicago.

Feb 27, 2026
BusinessKR

Hyundai pledges 9 trillion won for a Saemangeum hub that pairs a 30,000-robot plant with a 50,000-GPU data centre

Hyundai Motor Group agreed on February 27, 2026 to invest about 9 trillion won from 2026 in a robotics, AI and hydrogen hub at Saemangeum in North Jeolla. The plan includes a 400 billion won robot cluster with a finished-robot factory sized for about 30,000 units a year, a contract-manufacturing foundry and a parts complex, due in 2029, next to a 5.8 trillion won AI data centre scaled in phases to 50,000 GPUs.