SK Telecom expands physical AI push with 8 robotics startups

SK Telecom is deepening its collaboration with eight physical AI startups, aiming to combine technologies across AI semiconductors, data centers and digital twins to build a full-stack AI ecosystem.

SK Telecom said it hosted the Physical AI and Robotics Startup Forum on Thursday at SK Serin Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Participants shared trends in physical AI — technology that enables robots to perceive the real world and make autonomous decisions and actions — and the robotics industry.

Senior executives from SK Telecom, SK Group's AI Committee, SK Hynix and SK AX attended the forum, along with the CEOs of eight leading domestic physical AI and robotics startups. The participating companies were Gauss Labs, Realworld, MakinaRocks, Cmes Robotics, Wirobotics, Yuilrobotics, Config Intelligence and Holiday Robotics.

The eight companies collectively cover a broad range of robotics technologies and solutions in the physical AI space, including humanoid robots, wearable robots, industrial collaborative robots and robot foundation models (RFMs).

The forum opened with SK Telecom presenting its physical AI business strategy, followed by technology showcases from each of the eight startups, business updates, partnership proposals and a roundtable discussion.

Attendees focused on ways to conduct joint field pilots in manufacturing, logistics and service environments. They also discussed how to combine SK Group's capabilities in AI semiconductors, AI data centers, digital twins and AI models with the startups' physical AI technologies.

SK Telecom also discussed with the participating companies how to build robot-training datasets for RFM development within digital twin environments that virtually replicate industrial sites. Securing data and establishing testing environments are key challenges in physical AI, and SK Telecom said it expects the collaboration to accelerate the real-world application and commercialization of technologies currently at the research stage.

The participating companies plan to broaden their cooperation through ongoing exchanges, extending collaboration across robot hardware, data and models to build an open physical AI ecosystem.

"Innovation in the physical AI industry becomes possible when a full-stack AI ecosystem — spanning semiconductors to robot foundation models to application services — is organically connected," said Yoo Kyung-sang, head of SK Telecom's AI CIC. "We will expand our partnerships with domestic physical AI startups to lead the development of the robotics ecosystem."