Samsung has officially set up a standalone robotics division, signaling that the company is ready to treat robots as a core business rather than a side project. The new unit is called RX, short for Robotics eXperience, and it will bring together all of Samsung’s robotics work under one roof.
Leading the division is Dongkun Lee, who joined Samsung in May as an Executive Vice President. Lee is no stranger to this space. Before Samsung, he ran robotics strategy at Hyundai, which included overseeing Boston Dynamics. Samsung CEO TM Roh will have direct oversight of the RX division, a sign of how seriously the company is taking this push.
As reported by Engadget, the division will be based at Samsung’s Seoul headquarters, but the company is also planning to build robotics research hubs in the US, China, and Japan to pull in local talent and expertise.
The timing makes sense when you look at what the rest of the industry is doing. Physical AI, the idea of building AI systems that can operate in the real world through robots and other hardware, has become a major focus across the tech sector. A few recent moves illustrate just how fast this is happening:
- Hyundai bought the remaining stake in Boston Dynamics earlier this year, largely to accelerate its own physical AI work
- Alphabet folded its manufacturing robotics company into Google in February
- OpenAI is working on a line of physical devices, with a smart speaker believed to be the first product
Samsung’s move fits squarely into this broader shift. The company is not just building a research team. It has real manufacturing ambitions. According to Korea JoongAng Daily, Samsung plans to start producing humanoid robots before the end of this year. CEO TM Roh previously announced an investment of 19 trillion Korean won, roughly $13 billion, to build out production facilities at its Gumi site in Korea specifically for humanoid robot manufacturing, according to CNBC.
For Samsung, this is also about staying competitive in a market where it already has strong advantages. The company makes chips, displays, sensors, and consumer electronics at scale. Having its own robotics division means it can potentially build robots that use Samsung components throughout, from the processors to the cameras to the memory. That kind of vertical integration could be a real edge as the robotics market grows.
The appointment of Lee is worth paying attention to. His experience at Hyundai and Boston Dynamics means he understands both the industrial side of robotics and the challenges of making humanoid machines that actually work in real environments. Getting that combination right has proven difficult for most companies trying to enter this space.