Amazon Web Services (AWS) is positioning 'Physical AI' as a key growth area, expanding beyond the digital realm into the real world, and is actively supporting the robotics industry in South Korea. This initiative comes as the era of AI operating in real industrial settings, including robotics, autonomous production, logistics, and healthcare, begins to take shape.
During his keynote address at the 'AWS Summit Seoul 2026' on May 20 in Samsung-dong, Seoul, Ham Gi-ho, CEO of AWS Korea, stated, "AI is evolving from generative AI and agent AI to the physical AI stage, which extends into the physical world."
On the same day, AWS unveiled the 'Physical AI Frontier Program' aimed at supporting domestic physical AI companies in technology development and international expansion. A dedicated AWS technical team will assist throughout the entire process, from data collection to model training, simulation, and edge inference. AWS plans to facilitate collaboration among domestic companies and connect them to global markets.
Ham assessed that South Korea has significant potential in the field of physical AI. He noted, "South Korea has a dynamic physical AI ecosystem, ranging from AI semiconductor startups to robotics foundation model companies, and industries such as manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and defense. The government is also accelerating the nurturing of related industries with the goal of becoming the world leader in physical AI by 2030."
AWS is currently providing cloud infrastructure to major companies like HD Hyundai Robotics and Doosan, as well as domestic AI startups such as Config and RealWorld, to support physical AI development.
Ham emphasized AWS's strength in practical robotic operations, stating, "Over 1 million robots are already operating in Amazon's logistics centers. The end-to-end service connecting data collection to edge inference and our real operational experience are AWS's unique competitive advantages."
At the event, AWS also set up a dedicated exhibition area to showcase technology demonstrations from domestic physical AI companies. Demonstrations included autonomous production systems, collaborative robots, and autonomous delivery and patrol robots, highlighting the integration of cloud-based data processing and AI model training technologies in real industrial settings.
John Felton, AWS Chief Financial Officer, remarked, "Agent AI and physical AI represent a transformative change in the AI industry structure. This presents a significant economic opportunity, especially for South Korea, which has a strong manufacturing competitiveness."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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