How South Korea's Chaebols Are Pushing The Robotics Revolution
In 2021 Hyundai Motor Company paid $1.1 billion to acquire 80% of robotics pioneer Boston Dynamics, famous for videos of its dog-shaped bot named Spot and its running and jumping humanoid Atlas. The deal initially seemed more of a headline grab for Hyundai rather than part of a fully baked strategy.
That's no longer the case. Four years later, Hyundai ($130 billion 2024 sales, no. 142 on the Forbes Global 2000) now represents the tip of the spear in Korea Inc.'s thrust into robotics.
Hyundai — the world's third-largest automaker when including its 35% ownership of KIA Corp (no. 278) — has kept developing Spot especially for use as a roving site inspector, and continues to iterate Atlas, with the intention of selling mass-produced humanoids controlled by AI as soon as 2028.
Hyundai's robotics lab has already deployed its X-ble platform of wearable robotic exoskeletons for use in factories. X-ble Shoulder, launched late last year after trials with 300 workers, is said to reduce shoulder and deltoid muscle exertions by more than 30% when lifting heavy objects like car parts. Its X-ble MEX is a more complicated rehabilitation suit that can help people walk again. Incredibly, these X-ble exoskeletons don't require an outside power source, instead using passive spring-torque mechanics.
Industrial robots are nothing new to Korea, which already leads the world in density of robot deployment, with 1,000 bots per 10,000 factory workers, compared to about 300 in the U.S. and 470 in China. The robotics division of Doosan (no. 1713 with $13 billion in sales, controlled by billionaire Park Jeong-won) has already commercialized the Cobot, an industrial robot adept at welding, sanding, palletising, food frying and luggage handling.
Korea's powerful chaebols and the Korean government see massive opportunity for robots outside the factory. The government's new public-private partnership, the K-Humanoid Alliance, aims to offer a commercially viable bipedal bot by 2028 that weighs less than 130 pounds, can lift 40 pounds, walk about 3 yards per second and can move with the flexibility enabled by more than 50 joints. The K-Humanoid Alliance seeks to develop a common AI 'brain' that all Korean robots can use.
LG Electronics ($70 billion revenues, no. 910) already offers a rolling bot called CLOi, deployed for serving and carrying. LG last year introduced the small Q9 household bot, which can see, hear, talk and make up stories to entertain kids.
Samsung Electronics, the semiconductor and appliance giant ($220 billion revenues, no. 21 on the Forbes Global 2000) owns 35% of Rainbow Robotics, founded in 2011 by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology. They have shown off the Hubo bipedal robot and the RB-Y1 wheeled humanoid.
Robot prowess could soon become a matter of existential urgency for Korea, which suffers the world's lowest fertility rate at less than 1% and expects to need a lot more bots to care for its rapidly aging population.
Robotics could also help spur the sagging state of Korea's $1.7 trillion economy, forecast by the Bank of Korea to see anemic 0.8% GDP growth this year, following a 0.2% contraction in the first quarter. The KOSPI stock index is up 6% in the past year and merely 34% in 5 years. Korea's new president, the progressive Lee Jae-Myung has pledged a $30 billion tech stimulus package.
Hyundai's purchase of 80% of Boston Dynamics (Softbank owns the other 20%) may have seemed like its ante into the field of robotics, but now it has become the basis for game-changing productivity and products. Korean companies have been doing this for decades with semiconductors, smartphones, TVs and refrigerators.
Already, Spot bots outfitted with sensors continuously patrol complex and dangerous industrial sites, saving customers from having to install hundreds or thousands of static sensors (the U.S. Secret Service even has a Spot prowling the grounds of Mar-a-Lago). Recent videos from Boston Dynamics shows the humanoid Atlas bot crawling, tumbling and even break dancing.
The U.S. Secret Service has deployed Spot to prowl the grounds of Mar-A-Lago.
Getty Images
Global shipping company DHL agreed in May to buy a thousand of Boston Dynamics' Stretch robots for package handling, while Hyundai says it will deploy thousands more into the United States through a $21 billion investment strategy. Soon robots will be everywhere.
More than 60 South Korean companies made their way onto Forbes Global 2000, including Korea Electric Power, POSCO steel, and $515 billion (assets) financial services giant KB Financial. With the prospect of 25% tariffs looming POSCO, the world's sixth largest steel maker, has already announced a partnership with fellow Global 2000 member Hyundai Motors to invest in a $5.8 billion steel plant in Louisiana.
Newcomers to the Forbes Global 2000 include investment holding company SK Square as well as videogame maker Krafton, best known for PUBG Battlegrounds. Also new is Hanwha Aerospace, a defense contractor specializing in power turbines and self-propelled howitzers. Earlier this year Hanwha Aero announced its own robo-ambition to develop autonomous weapons systems.
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