Matrix Robotics plans a Korean R&D center within a year to train its humanoids on Korean shop floors

Chinese humanoid robot maker Matrix Robotics aims to open a joint R&D center in South Korea "as soon as possible, within a year at the earliest," vice president Gao Weize told Seoul Economic Daily in an Oct. 29 interview in Seoul, published Nov. 1. With Korean companies, universities and research institutes, it plans to develop physical AI technology and build training sites where its robots collect learning data in factories and service businesses and prove they can do the work.

Matrix is shopping for data before customers. Most robots today only run pre-programmed tasks, Gao said; in his view, large-scale data and field trials over the next one to two years will decide the humanoid market. That puts it after the kind of site Korea's own groups build for themselves: LG Electronics trains its CLOiD robots on washing-machine assembly at its data factory in Yangjae, Seoul, and expects hundreds of them there by the end of the year, ZDNet Korea reported.

Founded in Shanghai in 2024 by people who worked on Tesla's Optimus, Matrix has about 1,000 cumulative humanoid orders, Seoul Economic Daily reported. In June it had built several hundred robots, Commercial Times reported, citing AP. Its MATRIX-3 went on sale in May from RMB 580,000, and a fourth generation is due around May next year.

Gao also wants Korea for sales. China is the main market, he said, but Korea is policy-friendly for robot exports and a good base for expanding into Hong Kong, Macau and wider Asia-Pacific.