Samsung Asset Launches Korea's First Samsung Global Humanoid Robot Public Offering Fund

Samsung Asset Management announced on the 4th that it has launched the country’s first humanoid-themed fund, the ‘Samsung Global Humanoid Robot’ public offering fund. Focusing on ‘Physical AI,’ regarded as the final stage of AI development, the fund actively captures investment opportunities in the growth of the global humanoid robot industry.

The Samsung Global Humanoid Robot public offering fund invests by selecting companies among global leaders in the humanoid robot industry that can demonstrate actual profitability. Among companies showing high growth rates in the humanoid robot industry, it carefully selects global companies that can continuously generate free cash flow. The fund conducts in-depth analysis of target companies through site visits and close research cooperation with local subsidiaries.

With the emergence of generative AI, long-term growth of the AI industry is expected to accelerate. Currently, the focus is shifting from AI hardware and infrastructure, which attracted attention in the early stages of the industry, to AI software. Experts analyze that the next trend will be led by AI services and AI robots that utilize this technology. In particular, ‘Physical AI’ is gaining attention as AI technology is embedded in physical devices to assist and replace human physical labor. After NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang emphasized the importance of Physical AI at CES 2025, it has become a major topic in the market, and mass production and commercialization of humanoid robots are expected to begin soon.

The humanoid robot industry, a representative field of Physical AI, is actively developing mainly in the United States and China. Recently, as Chinese humanoid companies have started commercial sales in earnest, visibility of performance has increased, showing a positive stock price trend. Reflecting this movement, the Samsung Global Humanoid Robot fund manages the highest investment proportion in Chinese robot-related companies listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Chinese humanoid-related companies included are ▲UBTech ▲Robosense ▲Xiaomi. The fund also plans to steadily increase the proportion of U.S. robot-related companies, which have recently declined significantly.

Currently, UBTech’s representative humanoid robot ‘Walker S’ is deployed at Chinese automobile factories such as BYD, Tesla’s ‘Optimus’ is at Tesla factories, and Figure AI’s ‘Figure02’ is at BMW factories, where initial testing is underway. UBTech has reportedly received orders for more than 500 units of ‘Walker S’ from Chinese automobile companies including BYD and plans to sell over 1,000 units within the year.

With the decrease in the working-age population leading to rising labor costs, the reduction in humanoid production costs, and performance improvements, the economic utility of humanoid robots is expected to increase further. Experts anticipate that market growth will accelerate as adoption expands across various industries.

Lee Seong-jae, manager at Samsung Asset Management, said, “Although AI has entered an era replacing knowledge work, a significant portion of human activities still remains in the physical domain, so humanoid robots will establish themselves as the optimal technology to assist human physical activities,” adding, “We will pursue differentiated performance through proactive investments centered on U.S. and Chinese companies.”

The Samsung Global Humanoid Robot public offering fund can be subscribed through Samsung Securities, Mirae Asset Securities, NH Investment & Securities, KB Securities, Yuanta Securities, and others, with plans to expand the lineup of distributors in the future.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.