Samsung to focus robotics on factory automation: CEO

Samsung Electronics will concentrate on using robotics to automate its manufacturing operations in the near term, co-CEO Roh Tae-moon said at a press conference during CES 2026 in Las Vegas.

Roh said Samsung will consider expanding robotics beyond manufacturing to business and consumer markets after gaining experience in automation.

He added that manufacturing sites will be the first to deploy Samsung robots, with public release to follow after further development.

Roh also said Samsung plans to integrate AI across its Galaxy smartphones, premium TVs, and Wi-Fi-enabled home appliances, with a goal of shipping 400 million AI-equipped devices in 2026.

🔗 Source: Yonhap

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Samsung’s robotics timeline and scope remain vague

Samsung says manufacturing sites will get robots first. It has not named the plants, the quantities, or a timeline beyond “near term.”
It bought Rainbow Robotics last year, yet it has not said if factories will use humanoids or standard industrial arms.
No capital expenditure (capex) figures or deployment schedules are public, so investors cannot judge if this is a broad shift or a small pilot.
The 450 trillion won domestic plan centers on semiconductors and AI data centers, with no robotics line item, which muddies how automation ranks against other projects 1.

Developer options for Samsung’s 400 million AI-device goal

Samsung targets 400 million AI-equipped devices in 2026 across Galaxy phones, TVs, and appliances. That scale builds a big on-device AI surface for app makers and partners.
The Samsung Neural software development kit (SDK) is closed to third parties and runs only on Samsung hardware 2. For home and device tie-ins, developers can build through SmartThings, the company’s smart home platform 3.
The AI Recognition SDK offers neural processing unit (NPU) powered detection and segmentation application programming interfaces (APIs). The Tizen Actions Framework is software that lets generative AI (Gen AI) agents trigger functions in apps on Tizen-based screens, which enables integrations across Samsung TVs and other displays 4.
External AI vendors, from model providers to toolmakers, should watch Samsung’s developer programs and SDK updates through 2026 for partnership openings.