LG Electronics established a CEO-led “Robotics Business Center” effective July 1. The AI that used to write text and draw pictures on a screen is now taking on a robot’s body and moving in the physical world — and LG has declared it will grow this “Physical AI” into a core future business. Because the reorganization came about four months ahead of the usual year-end reshuffle, it signals just how much strategic weight the company is placing on the field. Today we walk through what the reorganization contains, why it matters, and how the global race in Physical AI and humanoid robots is heating up. 🤖

TL;DR

  • LG Electronics announced on June 30 and launched on July 1 a CEO-led “Robotics Business Center” — a point reorganization roughly four months ahead of the regular year-end reshuffle.
  • It is a fully self-contained unit spanning opportunity discovery, supply chain, manufacturing and commercialization, plus a dedicated robot-learning data factory to advance a Robot Foundation Model (RFM).
  • The backdrop: Tesla’s imminent Optimus production and NVIDIA’s lead in robot-development platforms — the global “Physical AI” contest that took off in 2026.

🏢 What exactly did LG change?

The core change is that the robot business has been elevated into an independent unit reporting directly to the CEO. LG Electronics announced the reorganization on June 30 and put it into effect on July 1. The new Robotics Business Center reports straight to the CEO. It is a fully self-contained unit with business-development, sales and operations functions covering the entire path from opportunity discovery to sales, supply chain, manufacturing and commercialization. In effect, robot-related capabilities that had been scattered across divisions are now gathered in one place.

The center is led by executive Song Si-yong. Having headed manufacturing-capability enhancement, production-system solutions and the smart-factory solutions center at the Production Technology Institute, he is well versed in the manufacturing floor and automation. The appointment is read as reflecting an intent to translate robotics into real business and manufacturing competitiveness.

🧠 The ‘data factory’ and the Robot Foundation Model (RFM)

The detail worth watching is the dedicated robot-learning data organization. Under the center sits a “robot-learning data factory,” which will directly secure high-quality training data and, on that basis, advance a Robot Foundation Model (RFM). Just as language models like chatbots learn from vast amounts of text, robots that move in the physical world make motion data — grasping, moving, walking — their competitive edge. LG’s decision to lock in data acquisition at the organizational level reads as a move aimed squarely at where the Physical AI contest will be won.

The timing matters too. LG Electronics usually carries out its regular reshuffle at year-end, but this time it reworked the robot organization alone, about four months early. That reads as a signal that robotics has grown strategically important enough to warrant reorganizing the decision-making structure without delay.

🌐 The global ‘Physical AI’ race everyone has joined

LG’s decision did not emerge in isolation. One of the biggest themes in the 2026 tech industry is precisely Physical AI — the flow of artificial intelligence, once confined to software, out into the physical world through a robot’s body. The flagship player, Tesla, has said it will begin early production of its humanoid robot “Optimus” this summer, deploy it on its own production lines, and use the accumulated data to improve efficiency and price competitiveness. The company’s stated target price is under $20,000 per unit. That said, these are Tesla’s own goals and plans, so the actual production timing and price may differ.

NVIDIA holds the robot’s “brain” and its learning environment. Early this year at CES 2026 it unveiled new open models, frameworks and AI infrastructure for Physical AI, offering tools that accelerate the entire robot-development workflow. Its “digital twin” platform — which lets robots rapidly learn, inside a virtual simulation, motions that would take tens of thousands of falls to master in reality — is cited as a key strength. With U.S. players like Figure AI and Boston Dynamics and Chinese firms like Unitree and UBTech joining the production race, a global value chain running from the robot’s brain to its joints, senses and assembly is taking shape fast.

📊 How big could the market get?

Market forecasts vary widely by institution. According to some sources, Goldman Sachs projected the global humanoid market could reach about $38 billion by 2035, while MarketsandMarkets forecast roughly $15.2 billion by 2030. Because the assumptions and time horizons differ, the figures cannot be compared at face value. Still, there is broad agreement that this is a high-growth market with a compound annual growth rate topping 30%. The precise size remains hard to state with certainty and could shift substantially depending on how quickly commercialization proceeds and whether costs fall.

✅ Overall — the AI front line moves onto robots

In sum, LG Electronics’ launch of the Robotics Business Center signals that a major Korean company now views Physical AI not as a “promising future field” but as an “area to commercialize now,” and has moved quickly to reorganize its structure and decision-making. Putting a dedicated data organization and a Robot Foundation Model front and center shows a judgment that data and AI models decide the contest just as much as hardware.

Three points are worth watching. First, whether and when Tesla’s Optimus actually begins mass production — whether it proceeds on plan will set the pace for the whole industry. Second, the race to secure data: who gathers more, higher-quality physical-motion data may open a gap in robot intelligence. Third, the ripple effect on Korean parts and materials firms — as the finished-robot race heats up, both the benefits and the burdens on the supply chain of reducers, sensors and actuators grow together. Whether AI that has walked off the screen settles into the language of real industry is worth watching through the second half of the year.

※ This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice.

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