LG and NVIDIA have signed an agreement to build a bipedal humanoid robot, with a public unveiling planned for the first quarter of 2027. The deal covers robotics, AI factories and mobility, and turns a handshake from June into a product roadmap.
LG Corp chairman and CEO Kwang Mo Koo and NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang signed the memorandum of understanding at NVIDIA’s Santa Clara headquarters on 13 August, with executives from LG Electronics, LG Innotek, LG Energy Solution and LG CNS in attendance, per the official announcement. It follows their first meeting at LG’s Seoul headquarters in June.
The humanoid robot, and the parts inside
The humanoid runs on NVIDIA’s Jetson Thor for onboard compute, with Isaac GR00T — NVIDIA’s open humanoid foundation model — providing the brain and Halos for Robotics handling safety. LG contributes the body: actuators from LG Electronics, sensors from LG Innotek and batteries from LG Energy Solution.
“As our discussions have moved fast, our tasks and goals in AI Factory and Physical AI have become clear. We will accelerate the spread of AI by building industry-leading references.”
Kwang Mo Koo, chairman and CEO of LG Corp
Easier targets come first. A wheeled CLOiD robot will be put on a washing machine production line at LG’s Tennessee plant this year as a proof of concept, and LG CNS’s PhysicalWorks platform will run the data pipeline that trains the machines. The two companies will also run a joint task force covering research, site validation and commercialisation.
“The defining opportunity of physical AI is to give every machine the ability to understand the real world, reason and act safely alongside people — reshaping everyday life from the home and factory floor to the road.”
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA
The AI factory that pays for it
The same agreement puts LG into the data-centre business. A reference site powered by NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform arrives in the first half of 2027, expanding into an 80-megawatt AI factory in Cheonan, South Korea, by the first half of 2028. Prefab modular construction is planned to cut build time by more than 20 per cent.
LG then plans to sell the validated package — design, construction and operation — to big-tech customers, a pitch that NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform is already making to Gulf data-centre builders. On the car side, LG will develop an AI-defined vehicle platform on NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion, extending its infotainment business into autonomous driving.
What it means for the Gulf
The humanoid itself has no confirmed regional rollout. LG’s near-term Gulf presence is its CLOi service robots, which the company has pitched at hotels, airports and malls since CES 2019. The more immediate local story is the AI factory model: NVIDIA’s physical AI push is already shaping the platforms Gulf operators are weighing, and LG’s turnkey packages are aimed at exactly the big-tech customers building in the region.
When will the LG and NVIDIA humanoid robot be unveiled?
The public unveiling is planned for the first quarter of 2027. LG and NVIDIA signed the partnership MoU on 13 August 2026 at NVIDIA’s headquarters in Santa Clara.
What is NVIDIA Isaac GR00T?
Isaac GR00T is NVIDIA’s open humanoid foundation model — the software ‘brain’ that helps humanoid robots understand the real world and act in it. LG will use it alongside its own in-house robot foundation model.
Will LG’s humanoid robot be available in the UAE?
No regional rollout has been confirmed. LG’s existing CLOi service robots are already marketed in the Gulf for hotels, airports and malls; the humanoid itself has no confirmed dates beyond the Q1 2027 unveiling.
