Samsung Enters Humanoid Robot Race With New RX Division

Samsung Electronics has announced the creation of a new robotics division named RX, short for Robotics eXperience, formally placing itself among the companies developing humanoid robots. The decision was made public a week after the Unpacked event, at which the South Korean firm presented a new generation of Galaxy devices, and it marks a shift of attention away from smartphones toward what the industry calls physical artificial intelligence.

The new division is being given standalone status within the company, and it will be led by the former head of robotics at Hyundai, which has been one of the most visible players in the sector in recent years through its ownership of Boston Dynamics. Alongside the appointment, Samsung is announcing investment worth billions aimed at developing robots that could work in factories, warehouses and, later, in the home.

What does the shift toward physical AI mean?

The term physical artificial intelligence describes systems that do not merely process text or images on a screen but control a body that moves and acts in real space. Unlike language models that answer prompts, a humanoid robot has to walk, keep its balance, recognize objects and handle them, problems that robotics has been working on for decades and that remain far from fully solved.

Samsung is not entering the field from scratch. The company already holds a stake in the South Korean firm Rainbow Robotics and has spent years developing home and service robots, including prototypes shown at electronics trade fairs. Setting up a dedicated division, however, signals that robotics is moving from a research phase to a business priority, similar to the one previously granted to semiconductors and mobile devices.

The motive is partly commercial. Smartphone sales are stagnating globally, so large technology companies are looking for the next major product category. Humanoid robots, which are also being developed by Tesla, Figure and the aforementioned Boston Dynamics, are often described as a potentially large new industry, even though large-scale commercial use has not yet been proven.

How far has the humanoid robot race really come?

Despite numerous demonstrations and announcements, humanoid robots are still largely in the testing stage. Videos of robots walking, sorting packages or making coffee are impressive, but they usually show controlled conditions rather than continuous operation in unpredictable environments. Manufacturing costs, reliability and safety remain open questions, and independent data on how productive these systems are in real use is scarce for now.

For Samsung, entering the race also means competing with companies that already have a multi-year head start in developing hardware and software for movement. On the other hand, Samsung has its own chips, sensors, batteries and manufacturing capacity, the very components a humanoid robot depends on. Whether that vertical integration will be a sufficient advantage will only become clear with concrete products and timelines, which the company has not yet spelled out.

The launch of the RX division is therefore, above all, a statement of intent and a reallocation of resources rather than a delivered product. When Samsung’s first humanoid robot will leave the laboratory, at what price and whether it will find a buyer beyond factory floors are questions the company has not yet answered. Do you think humanoid robots will become part of everyday life within the next decade, or is this a technology that will remain a promise for a long time to come?