The Ministry of Science and ICT held a meeting at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in Seoul on Monday, the starting point for what officials describe as a so-called "sovereign humanoid" platform worth 50.4 billion won ($33.4 million).
The platform, dubbed the "K-Moonshot" initiative, will draw 35.4 billion won from state coffers and 15 billion won from private investors and partners through 2030. The KIST will lead a consortium that includes LG Electronics, LG Energy Solution, and KAIST.
The humanoid will be built on KAPEX, a platform developed domestically by KIST, with LG Electronics developing a mass-production model and LG Energy Solution supplying solid-state batteries. More than 20 units will be deployed in care settings for field trials.
"This project is a starting point for building South Korea's flagship AI humanoid platform by integrating AI, humanoid robotics, batteries, mass-production technology, and demonstration capabilities," said Kim Seong-su, director general for the office of R&D policy at the ministry.
"We will do everything we can to ensure South Korea plays a leading role in the global AI humanoid market," he added.
The initiative comes as Kia President and CEO Song Ho-sung used investor roadshows in Hong Kong and Singapore last month to sharpen the commercial case for Boston Dynamics' Atlas humanoid.
Song reportedly told investors that Kia would deploy Atlas at its U.S. plant in Georgia in 2029, following an initial rollout at the Hyundai Motor Group's Metaplant America in 2028. Atlas will first handle physically demanding processes before being deployed to overseas factories with similar layouts.
China and Japan, Asia's two largest economies, are pursuing starkly different humanoid strategies.
China is doubling down on scale, as Hangzhou-based Unitree Robotics filed in March for a 4.2 billion yuan Shanghai IPO after shipping about 5,500 humanoids in 2025, according to its prospectus. UBTech Robotics plans to ramp production of humanoid robots to 5,000 units in 2026 and 10,000 in 2027. Leju Robotics opened a 10,000-unit-capacity factory in Guangdong in late March.
Japan, by contrast, leans on its precision-components heritage and a safety-first commercialization path. Honda's P2 humanoid was named an IEEE Milestone in April, while Toyota has steered its humanoid research toward elder care and household environments rather than industrial-scale deployment.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries unveiled its Kaleido 9 humanoid at the iREX 2025 exhibition in Tokyo last December, a model suited for disaster response. Tokyo will also host the inaugural Asian edition of the Humanoids Summit, an annual technology conference dedicated to advancing humanoid robotics, next week.
The Suwon District Court on Monday partially granted Samsung's injunction request but stopped short of banning the strike.
Even more hostile, unionized workers at automaker Hyundai Motor, meanwhile, declared that "not a single robot" would enter the workplace without a labor-management agreement, framing Atlas as a direct threat to jobs.
Whether the K-Moonshot initiative closes that gap may hinge less on engineering than on whether Korean factories can absorb humanoids without triggering the kind of confrontation now playing out at the electronics giant's main plant in Suwon.
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