Samsung has created a dedicated robotics division called RX, short for Robotics eXperience, based at its Seoul research campus in Umyeon, South Korea. The division will be led by Executive Vice President Dongkun Lee, who joined Samsung in May and previously headed Hyundai's robotics strategy, including oversight of Boston Dynamics. Samsung plans to begin manufacturing humanoid robots — robots built to resemble and move like the human body — in 2026, and will invest approximately 19 trillion Korean won (about $13 billion USD) to build production facilities in Gumi, Korea for that purpose (Engadget). The company also intends to set up robotics research hubs in the United States, China, and Japan (Reuters).

The establishment of RX was reported by multiple outlets on July 21, 2026. The Business Times placed the division's primary base at Samsung's Seoul research and development campus in Umyeon (The Business Times). CNBC confirmed the 19 trillion won investment figure and the Gumi manufacturing focus (CNBC).

Dongkun Lee's appointment gives the division a leader with direct experience in the robotics field. His time at Hyundai included oversight of Boston Dynamics, a company well known for its walking robots, which Hyundai acquired and has continued to develop. At Samsung, Lee holds the title of Executive Vice President and is responsible for RX's overall strategy.

The Gumi investment is notable for its scale. Gumi is already an established Samsung manufacturing center, and the 19 trillion won commitment signals that Samsung intends to build dedicated robot production lines rather than reuse its existing consumer electronics assembly lines. The target of beginning humanoid manufacturing in 2026 aligns with the current calendar year, meaning Samsung wants to move from forming the division to actually producing robots within a very short timeframe.

The planned research hubs in the US, China, and Japan suggest a globally distributed research strategy. Each of those three countries has deep existing talent pools in robotics and related fields. Locating research teams in all three markets positions Samsung to hire across different robotics communities rather than keeping all technical development concentrated in Seoul.

Samsung's entry into humanoid manufacturing places it alongside a small set of companies pursuing large-scale production of walking, human-like robots. The combination of a major capital commitment, a leader with proven robotics experience, and research centers spread across three countries suggests that Samsung is treating humanoid robotics as a real manufacturing business rather than a research experiment.

The speed of this plan is worth flagging. Forming a division, committing $13 billion in manufacturing investment, and targeting production within the same calendar year would be an aggressive timeline for any hardware product. Humanoid robotics is especially challenging because it requires combining many difficult technologies — motors that mimic human movement, batteries that are light enough to carry but powerful enough to last, sensors that let the robot see and understand its surroundings, and software that controls all of it. Whether Samsung can meet its 2026 production target will depend on how quickly the new division can turn research into working, manufacturable designs.

The broader context here is that Samsung is bringing its core strength — manufacturing consumer and industrial electronics at enormous scale — to a robotics market that has so far been dominated by research labs and small-volume producers. Samsung already makes many of the components a humanoid robot would need, including batteries, displays, sensors, and the computer chips that power them. Few robotics-only companies have that kind of in-house supply chain. If humanoid robots follow the same pattern as earlier consumer electronics, where prices dropped steadily as production scaled up, then manufacturing capability and component integration will matter just as much as the robotics technology itself.

The choice of Dongkun Lee to lead RX also says something about Samsung's strategic intent. Lee's background at Hyundai involved overseeing robotics strategy across multiple product categories, including Boston Dynamics. That kind of experience is different from leading a single robotics product; it involves deciding which types of robots to build, how to scale them, and how to fit them into a large industrial company. Bringing that kind of experience to Samsung suggests the company is thinking about RX as a division that will produce multiple types of robots, not just one.

Samsung's announcement does not specify which humanoid robot designs or purposes the initial Gumi production lines will target. The company has not disclosed technical specifications, target markets, or initial product categories for the robots it intends to manufacture. What is confirmed is the manufacturing intent, the investment level, the leadership structure, and the geographic scope of the research footprint.