Samsung Electronics
Korean electronics group building a robotics business around humanoid development and its largest-shareholder position in Rainbow Robotics.
- Robotics funding from mid-September to mid-October 2026: chips, data and safety took the private money while humanoid makers turned to stock markets
In the 30 days to October 14, 2026, MEKAWIRE verified 14 private robotics rounds with disclosed amounts worth $1,071.3 million. Compute chips took 51.3%, robot models 20.5% and data, perception and safety software 8.7%, while humanoid makers received $10 million, or 0.9%, against 13.4% between January and mid-September. The four October rounds, Mecka, Multiply Labs, SafeWorld and Minerva Humanoids, paid for what stands between a capable robot and a paid deployment, while humanoid makers raised through an IPO, a SPAC and a Form D offering.
Mentioned - Korea clears 20 Robros humanoids to work beside people, and the fence rule it lifts is the bottleneck Figure, Atlas and UBTech face too
Korea's regulatory sandbox approval on October 13 lets Robros put 20 walking humanoids beside workers at Nepes, Sungwoo Hitech, HD Hyundai Samho and Delivery Lab, lifting a fence rule written for fixed industrial robots. Set against MEKAWIRE's records, the number is small: Hyundai plans 25,000 Atlas units, UBTech sold 921 full-size humanoids in six months and Figure says it builds one robot an hour. But Korea is the only market in our data where the state has formally changed who may let a humanoid work next to people, and that permission, not robot count, is what most factory deployments are still waiting for.
Mentioned - Standard Bots raises US$200 million at a US$1 billion valuation to build AI-taught factory robots in New York
Standard Bots said on 9 June 2026 that it had raised a US$200 million Series C led by RoboStrategy, with existing investors including General Catalyst, at a valuation of US$1 billion. The Glen Cove, New York, robot maker is expanding its plant to 70,000 square feet and says it is on pace to supply 10% of new US industrial robot deployments by 2027.
investor - Amazon buys Fauna Robotics, maker of the 107 cm Sprout humanoid, less than two months after the robot's launch
Fauna Robotics said on 24 March 2026 that it had joined Amazon and would operate as an Amazon company, keeping its Sprout humanoid on sale and its customers supported; no terms were disclosed. The deal gives the operator of more than 1 million warehouse robots a small, safety-first humanoid used by Disney, Boston Dynamics, NYU and UC San Diego, and a team drawn from Google DeepMind and CTRL-labs.
Mentioned - Sunday raises $165 million at a $1.15 billion valuation to move its glove-trained Memo robot from demos into homes
Sunday, the Silicon Valley developer of the Memo household robot, said on 12 March 2026 that it had raised an oversubscribed $165 million Series B at a $1.15 billion valuation, led by Coatue, with Coatue's Thomas Laffont joining the board. The company trains Memo on data from people wearing its Skill Capture Glove instead of teleoperating robots, plans an invite-only home beta from the autumn and expects to ship at scale in 2027-2028.
Mentioned - LG enters the robot joint business with its AXIUM actuator brand as the CLOiD home robot makes its CES debut
LG Electronics unveiled the CLOiD home robot and launched LG Actuator AXIUM, a brand of motor, drive and reducer joint modules aimed at the wider robotics market, at CES 2026. The robot came with detailed joint counts but no price or date, and the actuator with no specifications or customer, leaving LG behind Hyundai Mobis, which named Boston Dynamics' Atlas as its first actuator customer three days later.
Mentioned - Hyundai Motor Group pledges KRW125.2 trillion in Korea to 2030, adding a robot foundry and a physical AI test center
Hyundai Motor Group said on 16 November 2025 it will invest KRW125.2 trillion in South Korea from 2026 to 2030, its largest domestic commitment and KRW36.1 trillion more than in the previous five years. The plan puts KRW50.5 trillion into future businesses including AI, robotics and hydrogen, and lists a robot manufacturing and foundry facility, a Physical AI Application Center and a petabyte-scale AI data center that is still under review.
Mentioned - Korea lines up more than 260,000 NVIDIA GPUs as Hyundai, Samsung and SK aim the compute at robots and factories
NVIDIA and South Korea said on 31 October 2025 that more than 260,000 NVIDIA GPUs will go into the government's sovereign cloud and the country's biggest industrial groups. Hyundai Motor Group and NVIDIA put about $3 billion behind a physical AI push that includes virtual testing of humanoid robots, while Samsung and SK plan AI factories with robotics and digital twin workloads.
Partner - Dyna Robotics raises US$120 million Series A from Robostrategy, CRV and First Round to scale its DYNA-1 robot foundation model into paid laundry and restaurant work
Dyna Robotics closed a US$120 million Series A on 15 September 2025, led by Robostrategy, CRV and First Round Capital with NVIDIA, Amazon, Salesforce, Samsung and LG venture arms joining, six months after a US$23.5 million seed. The Redwood City company did not disclose a valuation; it says its DYNA-1 model already runs paying deployments in hotels, restaurants, laundromats and gyms for up to 16 hours a day.
investor - Doosan Robotics pays $27.2 million for 89.59% of Pennsylvania integrator ONExia to sell US packaging cells built around its arms
Doosan Robotics agreed on 28 July 2025 to buy 89.59% of ONExia, an Exton, Pennsylvania robot integrator, for a final KRW 37.41 billion (USD 27.19 million) in cash, closing on 17 September 2025. ONExia has since absorbed Doosan's US sales arm, won Haleon packaging contracts and swung to a loss as the merged unit, while Doosan raised its stake to 94.12%.
Mentioned - Korea forms K-Humanoid Alliance of about 40 groups, targeting a shared robot brain and sub-60kg, 50-joint humanoids by 2028
South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy launched the K-Humanoid Alliance in Seoul on 10 April 2025, with about 40 companies, universities and other organisations signing a cooperation agreement aimed at making Korea the world's leading humanoid nation by 2030. The ministry expects more than 1 trillion won of public and private investment by 2030 and set 2028 targets for a shared robot AI foundation model and for humanoids under 60kg with more than 50 degrees of freedom.
Mentioned - LG Electronics takes 51% of Bear Robotics and hands it the CLOi service robot business, four weeks after Samsung moved on Rainbow
LG Electronics' board voted on 22 January 2025 to exercise a call option for another 30% of Silicon Valley delivery robot maker Bear Robotics, lifting its stake to 51% and making the start-up a subsidiary. LG will move its CLOi commercial robot unit under Bear and keep chief executive John Ha in charge, but has not said what it paid for the second tranche.
Mentioned - Samsung takes 35% of Rainbow Robotics for 267.5 billion won and puts a humanoid office under its CEO
Samsung Electronics exercised a call option on 31 December 2024 to raise its Rainbow Robotics stake from 14.71% to 35.00%, buying 3,935,814 shares from the founding group for 267,462,550,960 won. It also created a Future Robotics Office reporting to the chief executive, led by Rainbow co-founder Oh Jun-ho, and closed the share purchase on 12 March 2025.
Acquirer