KT Corp teams up with KAIST, Daim Research to advance physical AI in manufacturing

KT Corp is building alliances to push into the physical AI market.

KT Corp announced Tuesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and physical AI specialist Daim Research to jointly develop, demonstrate and commercialize physical AI technology.

Under the agreement, the three organizations will collaborate on commercializing a Dark Factory platform for fully unmanned factory operations, as well as identifying physical AI business opportunities and pursuing global expansion.

The centerpiece of the collaboration is the Dark Factory platform commercialization effort, which will be carried out under a Ministry of Science and ICT initiative — the "2026 Collaborative Intelligence Physical AI-Based Software Platform R&D Ecosystem Development Project."

The project aims to develop an AI-based unmanned and automated platform applicable to manufacturing environments, with all three organizations participating over a five-year period.

The partners will focus on developing autonomous manufacturing process technology, drawing on logistics and manufacturing robot control platforms and robotics expertise held by KAIST and Daim Research.

They also plan to build a testbed that closely replicates real industrial environments to validate the technology, then expand its application across various manufacturing sectors based on the results.

KT Corp will provide an integrated operations platform for managing robots and AI systems. The company will also support real-time robot decision-making and control using edge AI — which processes data on-site to minimize latency — along with ultra-fast, ultra-low-latency network infrastructure.

In addition, the partners will work to create physical AI environments in which robots can perceive their surroundings, make independent judgments and carry out tasks on the factory floor.

Beyond the core platform work, the three organizations will jointly pursue on-site deployment and commercialization of physical AI, develop specialized talent and seek entry into global markets.

"Through this collaboration, we will build an industry-academia model in which KAIST's research achievements are demonstrated on actual manufacturing floors and translated into new industries and businesses," said Choi Sung-yul, KAIST vice president for research.

"We will combine KAIST's research capabilities, KT Corp's AI and network infrastructure, and Daim Research's robot operations, control and Dark Factory technology to create real-world success stories in physical AI-based autonomous manufacturing," said Jang Young-jae, CEO of Daim Research.

Park Sang-won, executive vice president and head of KT Corp's AX Business Division, said the company would "contribute to strengthening South Korea's physical AI competitiveness together with our partners."

Meanwhile, KT Corp plans to invest about 5 trillion won ($3.69 billion) over the next five years to add 1 gigawatt of AI data center capacity, with the aim of providing nationwide ultra-low-latency, real-time inference infrastructure essential for the physical AI era.