LG Electronics’ Robot Actuators Near First Big Deal

At a home appliance trade show in Berlin on Sept. 5, LG Electronics HS Business Division head EVP Baek Seung-tae told Korean reporters that talks to sell robot actuators to outside customers have advanced considerably. He said the company is already in supply negotiations with several global tech giants and plans to meet with one of them next month to go over production readiness and technical details. He added that he hoped to share good news soon — a hint that a deal may be close.

An actuator bundles a motor, reducer, and drive unit into a single part that governs a robot's movement — essentially its joints and muscles. Because this one component can account for well over half the material cost of building a robot, whoever supplies it has significant sway over a robot maker's cost competitiveness. LG Electronics first unveiled its in-house AXIUM brand at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year and is now producing an initial run at its plant in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province.

Baek pointed to 60 years of motor-manufacturing know-how as the company's edge, citing high-speed motor technology capable of spinning more than 100,000 times per minute along with design expertise for building parts that are both light and inexpensive. Reducers are a relatively weaker area, so LG is combining in-house development with outside sourcing, he said, and plans to expand its nine-variant lineup — split by power output and size — to fit customer needs.

The actuator push is part of a broader shift for LG Electronics away from consumer sales and toward business-to-business revenue. B2B currently makes up just over 10% of HS division revenue; with built-in appliances and commercial washers already contributing, the company is counting on actuators as a third pillar to push that share higher. LG expects actuator sales to reach the scale of its existing external compressor business within one to two years.

Robotics is also a priority at the group level. Chairman Koo Kwang-mo met with Nvidia's CEO last month to discuss cooperation on physical AI and robotics, and LG Electronics is developing multiple robot platforms, including wheeled and bipedal designs. Baek said the company plans to validate the technology in industrial settings before moving to home use, and that humanoid robots will soon be deployed at its Tennessee plant and its Changwon smart factory.