South Korean LG CNS has announced a partnership with US-based Skild AI to develop industrial humanoid robot solutions aimed at automating complex physical tasks. The agreement, announced on Tuesday, includes both a technology partnership and an equity investment made through LG Technology Ventures, LG’s corporate venture capital arm.
The collaboration seeks to build AI-powered humanoid robots for manufacturing, logistics, and urban services. The new robots are expected to reduce costs and improve efficiency by handling repetitive and hazardous duties, such as factory monitoring, product assembly, and logistics. They may also be used in city environments for services like elder care and security patrols.
Founded in 2023 by IIT Kanpur graduates Abhinav Gupta and Deepak Pathak, Skild AI leverages the robot foundation model (RFM). This general-purpose learning system enables robots to interpret data from images, video, voice and text to make autonomous decisions and interact with their surroundings.
LG CNS aims to offer a complete service package including Skild AI’s RFM, its own robot control platform, and integration with smart factory, logistics, and urban solutions. The company also plans to collaborate with hardware manufacturers to complete the robotic systems.
“We will support customers to make their work more intelligent and achieve business results with AI humanoid robots,” said Lee Jun-ho, managing director of smart logistics & city business division at LG CNS.
The service will be rolled out across LG CNS’s smart infrastructure platforms. The partnership marks LG CNS’ official entry into the competitive industrial humanoid robotics sector, as companies worldwide seek to scale AI applications beyond virtual tasks.
NVIDIA and Samsung are also reportedly investing a combined $35 million into Skild AI, as Bloomberg reported this month. The South Korean giant will contribute $10 million, while the California-based chip giant will contribute the remaining $25 million. This is part of the company’s Series B funding round, which will value Skild AI at approximately $4.5 billion, reportedly led by a $100 million investment from Japan’s SoftBank Group.
In March this year, Skild AI accelerated the development of its human-like robot brain, ‘Skild Brain,’ with AI solutions from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. The company also claims that this can adapt across hardware and tasks.
