Morgan Stanley Solely Selects Naver as Humanoid Technology Company

Naver Headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Morgan Stanley has drawn attention by selecting Naver as a representative humanoid technology company.

According to industry sources on the 5th, Morgan Stanley chose Naver as a leading humanoid technology provider in its investment report on Tesla's humanoid-related ventures. The report covers Tesla's robot technology, and while domestic companies were somewhat included in fields like semiconductors and batteries, Naver was the only one in the humanoid sector.

Morgan Stanley predicted that the humanoid hardware development field is closely related to artificial intelligence (AI) and will directly benefit from increased capital formation and research and development (R&D) investment in robotics. It also forecasted that with major global corporations like Tesla actively entering humanoid development, over 1 billion humanoid robots will be operating by 2040.

Additionally, it presented the 'Humanoid 66' list, dividing 66 global companies into humanoid technology providers and beneficiaries. Battery sector providers included LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI, SK Innovation, and China's CATL, while semiconductor providers included Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix. Naver was the only company selected in the humanoid technology field. Industry insiders say this signifies that Naver's long-standing robot technology research is beginning to gain global recognition.

Particularly, attention was drawn to Naver Labs, a Naver affiliate, and its two-armed robot 'Ambidex' unveiled at CES 2019, the world's largest electronics and IT exhibition. Ambidex was first introduced in 2017 through an industry-academic cooperation research project between Naver Labs and KoreaTech, aiming to safely interact with users in everyday spaces.

Naver Labs, which led the development of Ambidex, is Naver's specialized research subsidiary responsible for developing various forms of robot technology, including humanoids. It also conducts research in fields such as cloud computing, robotics, augmented reality (AR), and autonomous driving to make robots more useful.

At the time, Dennis Hong, a world-renowned expert in robotics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), praised, "Naver's robot arm Ambidex is a work of art," and called it "the best winner among the robots showcased at CES."

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley selected distribution and e-commerce companies such as Amazon, Coupang, McDonald's, Lotte, and GS as beneficiaries of humanoid technology. Companies in industries like construction and automotive were also included. Tesla, Toyota, and Xiaopeng were noted as both providers and beneficiaries.