The Korean government has announced plans to support more than 10 collaborative research and development (R&D) projects between component and robot companies over the next five years to foster the growth of the humanoid industry. Humanoids, robots powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that can think and act like humans, have become the focus of intense global competition, with tech giants such as Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft, and NVIDIA making massive investments to commercialize the technology.

The recently launched “K-Humanoid Alliance” brings together over 40 organizations from academia, industry, and research institutes, actively signing MOUs and discussing joint technology development. Participating Korean humanoid manufacturers plan to provide their in-development robots to AI research groups this year, which will use the robots to collect behavioral data and work on developing general-purpose robot foundation models.

The government aims to accelerate the development of core humanoid parts through collaboration among component and robot companies and will introduce a financial fund in the latter half of this year to support humanoid-related businesses. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to systematically operate the K-Humanoid Alliance and strengthen cooperation among companies and institutions, actively supporting the global competitiveness of Korea’s humanoid industry

* Article source : https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20250430189400003