Wheels in Motion: S. Korea Robotics | Asia Pacific

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Idea

August 19, 2026 04:19 AM GMT

S. Korea Robotics | Asia Pacific

Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc, Seoul Branch+

Young Suk Shin

Equity Analyst

Wheels in Motion

Chan Park

Equity Analyst

While still early in development, we are starting to see more

visible signs of the major Korea conglomerates laying out

concrete production targets and moving towards tangible

execution on their respective robotics/humanoids ambitions.

Physical AI gaining momentum: We highlight some of the recent developments

Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc+

Shawn Kim

Equity Analyst

Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc, Seoul Branch+

Ryan Kim

Equity Analyst

that suggest the likes of Hyundai, Samsung, and LG are moving towards more

tangible execution on their robotics ambitions, with each group leveraging existing

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC

manufacturing and technology capabilities to build out robotics ecosystems.

Adam Jonas, CFA

Equity Analyst

• Hyundai Motor Group: According to the Korea Economic Daily on Aug 13,

HMG asked ~200 Tier-1 suppliers to submit humanoid business plans, as it

Morgan Stanley Asia Limited+

looks to build a localized supply chain and lower production costs ahead of

Sheng Zhong

Atlas mass production from 2028. The company has not commented, but if

Equity Analyst

true, we see this as an important step toward leveraging HMG’s established

automotive supply chain and manufacturing scale to industrialize humanoids,

potentially accelerating Atlas’ mass-production readiness while broadening

Korea’s physical AI ecosystem.

• Samsung Electronics: On July 21, SEC established its CEO-led Robotics

eXperience (RX) Office, consolidating robotics strategy, core technology

development and commercialization as it shifts from R&D to deployment

and commercialization. SEC (covered by Shawn Kim) also plans to build a

robotics Data Factory at Gumi and establish research hubs in the US, China

and Japan. We see this, together with its controlling stake in Rainbow

Robotics, as laying the organizational, data and technology foundations to

accelerate its humanoid push and leverage Samsung’s manufacturing

…