Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made a notable appearance alongside multiple partnered robots during his keynote speech at CES 2025. South Korean media observed that out of the 14 showcased robots, six were from Chinese companies, marking the highest representation, while none were from South Korean companies, sparking significant concern and discussion within the South Korean industry.
According to media outlets including ZDNet Korea and Chosun Biz, Huang stated that artificial intelligence (AI) will expand into the physical world. During his recent keynote address at CES 2025, where he shared the stage with humanoid robots from global partners, South Korean media noted that Chinese enterprises dominated nearly half of the showcase, while South Korean robots were completely absent, raising alarms in the sector.
Standing on stage alongside 14 humanoid robots displayed on the screen, Huang declared, "The ChatGPT moment for general robotics is just around the corner."
The lineup included several iconic American robots such as Boston Dynamics' E-Atlas, Agility Robotics' Digit, Figure's Figure 02, and Apptronik's Apollo.
Chinese companies had the highest representation with six robots, including Unitree's H1, XPeng's Iron, Galbot's G1, Robotera's Star 1, Agibot's A2, and Fourier's GR-2.
The remaining robots include 1X's NEO from Norway, Mentee's MenteeBot from Israel, Neura Robotics' 4NE-1 from Germany, and Sanctuary AI's Phoenix from Canada.
Despite South Korea's efforts in developing humanoid robots, the industry faces criticism over underwhelming results. The representative company for South Korean humanoid robots is Rainbow Robotics, known for creating the country's first humanoid robot, Hubo. Other notable players include A Robot and Holiday Robotics.
Insiders in the South Korean securities industry pointed out that the complete absence of South Korean companies in Huang's lineup serves as a major warning sign, especially given that Chinese firms held the highest share among the 14 showcased robots.
Furthermore, Huang announced the launch of a world foundation model development platform named Cosmos, which aims to accelerate the development of physical AI systems by simulating real-world conditions. The platform is open-licensed and available on GitHub.