Korea budgets ₩30 billion for 200 humanoids in 2027, while its own robot foundation model is funded to the end of 2028

Korea's industry ministry has set aside ₩30 billion in its 2027 budget to supply 200 humanoid robots to universities and government-funded research institutes, and plans to spend ₩126 billion on 840 robots through 2030. The figures come from the National Assembly Budget Office's (NABO) analysis of the 2027 budget bill, Aju Business Daily reported on Nov. 3. Each robot is budgeted at ₩150 million: ₩130 million for the hardware platform, sensors and robot hands, and ₩20 million for the software platform and integration.

The bodies arrive before the brain. Korea has no domestic robot foundation model that researchers can run on a humanoid, and the ministry itself says the country's main universities and labs mostly use Chinese hardware with American or open-source software, with no real-world use of a Korean humanoid so far. The ministry's program to build that model gets ₩9.449 billion through the end of 2028, less than a third of what next year's 200 robots alone will cost. Until it delivers, Aju writes, research and teaching on Korean software may be limited, and the robots may keep depending on foreign technology.

A first customer for Korean hardware

The purchase is meant to create early demand for Korean humanoids and push makers to invest in mass production. The Financial News reported in September that the budget bill would put the robots in engineering schools and state research institutes. The bill's numbers are smaller than the 250 domestically built humanoids in 2027 and 1,080 by 2030 that the Ministry of Planning and Budget gave in August, according to The Korea Times.

NABO's warning is direct: if only the hardware rollout is pushed ahead, "it may be hard to tie it to self-reliance in domestic RFMs," and the ministry should review where the domestic model stands and roll out Korean hardware and software together. The best case for buying first is the one Aju also reports: robots already in labs build research experience and give a Korean model somewhere to be tested.

The first Korean candidate could come well before 2028. The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, which opened a public humanoid data factory on Nov. 3, plans to unveil its KAIROS humanoid and version 1.0 of a humanoid foundation model next year, Maeil Ilbo reported. If that model is ready when the first of the 200 robots reach the labs, NABO's worry shrinks to a question of whether universities choose to use it.