Korea's ₩340 billion plan to buy 1,700 robots next year leaves humanoids about a tenth of the money

Korea's government will spend ₩340 billion next year to buy about 1,700 AI robots, and wants 15,000 in public service by 2030, Lee Min-woo, the industry ministry's director-general for industrial growth, said at the opening of RoboWorld 2026 in Goyang on Nov. 4. "The government will boldly become the first buyer," he said, because private and public customers usually wait until a robot has proven itself. The budget, drawn from the requests of eight ministries, still needs the National Assembly's approval, the Korea Economic Daily reported.

Read the order list and most of it is not humanoids. The robots are headed for fire, police and defense work, farms, care and university research, the Korea Economic Daily wrote. When the ministry brought buyers and makers together on Oct. 28 and 29, the briefing was for wheeled and four-legged robots, with the defense ministry, the army, the fire and police agencies and the agriculture ministry among the nine buyers, and Rainbow Robotics, Robotis, Hyundai Motor and Neubility among the 11 sellers. Humanoids appear in the budget as 200 humanoid robots for universities and research institutes at ₩30 billion, Aju Business Daily reported on Nov. 3. If those are part of the 1,700, as the research line suggests, humanoids are about 12% of the units and 9% of the money.

The fight is over who gets to sell

The rules around the purchase say more than its size. The ministry wants suppliers to carry stronger repair obligations, accident insurance to be compulsory, and purchasing officers protected from penalties if they followed the standards, so that robots are not bought and left unused, according to the Korea Economic Daily. It also wants ministries to coordinate so that low-priced Chinese products do not capture the benefit, as happened with Korea's electric-bus subsidies. A public-procurement guideline covering parts suppliers, data collection and repairs is due by the end of the year.

The case against reading this as a vote against humanoids is that the ministry is backing them elsewhere, with money for development, not purchases. Lee said humanoids specialized for 10 major industries are to be developed by 2028, a new program will put about ₩120 billion over four years into three weak components (actuators, robot hands and sensors), and about ₩300 billion over five years will build a robot data factory for robot foundation model training, Robot Newspaper reported. The Intelligent Robots Act, passed about 18 years ago, is to be rewritten for the physical AI era.

"It is time for a major shift from a country that uses robots well to one that makes them well," Lee said, according to Financial News. The year-end guideline will show how far Korea is willing to go to make sure that ₩340 billion buys Korean robots, and whether price is allowed to decide.