The founder of Rainbow, Jun-Ho Oh, will resign from Rainbow and become CEO of the Future Robotics Office.
Rainbow made Korea’s first humanoid robot called Hubo (pictured) and specialises in collaborative robots, dual-arm mobile manipulator and autonomous mobile robots for manufacturing and logistics automation tasks.
“By combining Samsung Electronics’ AI and software expertise with Rainbow Robotics’ robotic technology, the collaboration aims to accelerate the development of intelligent, advanced humanoids,” says Samsung.
According to Goldman Sachs, the humanoid robot market is projected to reach $38 billion by 2035.
Rainbow, founded in 2011 by researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), has yet to make a profit. In Q3 2024, it lost $2.7 million on sales of $6.6 million.
Robotics is becoming a major focus for the electronics industry. Elon Musk plans to launch his humanoid robot Optimus in 2026 and last month TSMC CEO CC Wei told the Taiwan National Science and Technology Conference: “One area I would point out is multifunctional robots, which is the critical direction for the future. I just spoke to the richest man in the world a few days ago, and he told me that multifunctional robots are the most critical area and that he is dedicating great efforts to it, rather than to cars.”
In 2020, Samsung’s cross-town rival Hyundai bought Boston Dynamics.
