LG's Physical AI Play: Why Magok Is the Address to Watch

GlobalRika Research Team

Oct 24

4 min read

Updated: Oct 24

Hyundai bought a robot company. LG is taking a different route: it is building a robot out of its own affiliates. One makes the AI model, one the joints, one the sensors, one the batteries, and the appliance business supplies the factories and homes where the robots will work first.

LG calls this "One LG". This piece looks at what it means for physical AI, and why the Magok district, on the western edge of Seoul near Gimpo Airport, is where much of it comes together.

1. One LG, one robot

In August 2026, LG Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang signed a strategic MOU at NVIDIA's headquarters. Its headline project is a two-legged humanoid robot, due to be unveiled in the first quarter of 2027.

The division of labor is clear. NVIDIA supplies the robot computer (Jetson Thor) and its humanoid foundation model (Isaac GR00T). LG Electronics supplies actuators, LG Innotek supplies sensors, and LG Energy Solution supplies batteries. The same MOU covers an AI data center test site in the first half of 2027 and an 80MW AI data center in Cheonan by the first half of 2028.

LG Electronics also set up a Robotics Business Center reporting directly to the CEO on June 30, 2026, with its own team for robot training data.

2. The brain: LG builds its own AI too

Unlike most hardware companies, LG has its own frontier AI lab. LG AI Research released K-EXAONE 2.0 on July 31, 2026: a 750-billion-parameter model, the largest in Korea, published under the Apache 2.0 license so anyone can use it commercially. Its vision-language model, EXAONE 4.5, came out in April.

In February 2026, the lab turned its vision team into a Physical Intelligence Lab focused on action models for robots and smart factories. So LG is running two tracks at once: NVIDIA's platform for the humanoid, and its own models for the wider robot and factory business.

3. Magok: where LG's robots get their brains

LG Science Park opened in Magok in 2018. It is Korea's largest corporate R&D complex: about KRW 4 trillion (about US$3 billion) of investment, 20 research buildings and more than 1.1 million square meters of floor space, with around 20,000 people from eight LG affiliates, partners and startups.

The campus has been pulling more of the AI story in. LG AI Research moved its headquarters from Yeouido to Magok in May 2025, bringing about 300 researchers together. In September 2026, LG held its LG SPARK 2026 festival there with developers from NVIDIA, Google, Microsoft and Amazon, showcasing 13 "One LG" core technologies across physical AI, AI data centers and automotive.

And on October 23, 2026, LG hired Hyun Dong-jin, who led Hyundai Motor Group's Robotics Lab for 12 years, as its head of physical AI. He will work out of LG Science Park as the control tower for the group's robot business, including the humanoid.

4. From factory floor to living room

LG has a ready market for its robots: its own plants. Its smart factory business, built on decades of appliance manufacturing, already sells to battery makers, auto parts suppliers and logistics firms, and LG targets more than KRW 1 trillion (about US$750 million) in external sales by 2030. It plans to bring humanoid manufacturing robots into its own lines step by step, and has said it will test a CLOiD robot on its washing machine line in Tennessee.

Commercial service robots run through Bear Robotics, a Silicon Valley company in which LG invested US$60 million in 2024 and took control in 2025. Bear Robotics is now reported to be exploring a Nasdaq listing; LG says no decision has been made.

The joints may become a business of their own. LG launched its AXIUM actuator brand at CES 2026, started pilot production in Changwon, and says it is in talks with several big tech companies, with outside sales targeted from 2027. At home, LG aims to commercialize household robots by 2028.

5. LG and Hyundai: two Korean bets

Korea now has two very different bets on physical AI. Hyundai owns a robot maker, Boston Dynamics, and works with outside AI labs. LG is building its own AI models and assembling the robot from its affiliates, with NVIDIA as the main outside partner. Both are using their own factories as the first customer.

What this means for startups, suppliers and EDOs

Magok is the front door. Research, AI and now robot strategy sit on one campus. LG's SUPERSTART open innovation program, launched with the Science Park in 2018, held its 2026 demo day there in April with 41 deep-tech startups.

Bring what LG does not make. LG covers the AI model, actuators, sensors and batteries in-house. Gaps remain in hands and grippers, tactile sensing, safety certification, simulation, training data and fleet software.

Watch the US footprint. A robot pilot in Tennessee, a Silicon Valley robot subsidiary eyeing Nasdaq, and NVIDIA as a core partner all point to US activity. For economic development organizations, LG's robotics and smart factory plans are worth tracking alongside its appliance plants.

Use the open models. With K-EXAONE 2.0 under Apache 2.0, companies can build on LG's model before any partnership exists. That can be a practical way in.

The bottom line

LG is betting that owning the brain as well as the body, and keeping both close together in Magok, will make it more than a parts supplier in the robot era. The humanoid reveal in early 2027 will be the first real test. For partners, the time to get to know the people in Magok is now.

If you are a robotics or AI company, or an economic development organization looking to work with Korean companies, we would be glad to help. Contact us at info@globalrika.com.

About the data

Figures are from company announcements and Korean media reports through October 2026. Some timelines are company targets and may change. Bear Robotics listing plans are press reports, not company confirmation. US dollar figures are approximate, converted at about KRW 1,330 per dollar.

Sources