"If You Invested 10 Million Won, It Would Be 2 Billion"... This Stock Soared Riding on Samsung Electronics and Others

Rainbow Robotics, Listed on KOSDAQ 3 Years Ago,
Soars 43.21% in First 2 Trading Days of New Year

If you had invested 10 million won, it would be 230 million won.

The stock that achieved an astonishing 23-fold return is Rainbow Robotics, a company related to robots. According to the Korea Exchange on the 4th, Rainbow Robotics surged 43.21% over two trading days this year, closing at 233,000 won on the 3rd. It hit the upper limit on the first trading day of the new year, the 2nd, and rose an additional 10.17% the following day, the 3rd.

Rainbow Robotics, born in a laboratory at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), was listed on KOSDAQ in 2021. Initially, it did not attract much attention, and its stock price remained largely unchanged near the initial public offering price of around 10,000 won for nearly three years. The value of Rainbow Robotics began to rise when Samsung Electronics sent a love call.

Oh Junho, Honorary Professor at KAIST and Head of Samsung Electronics' Future Robot Promotion Team. Provided by Rainbow Robotics, Yonhap News Agency

Samsung Electronics chose Rainbow Robotics as its first investment destination in the robot business. In January 2023, Samsung Electronics invested 59 billion won in Rainbow Robotics, acquiring a 10.2% stake, and two months later, in March of the same year, it invested an additional 27.8 billion won, increasing its stake to 14.7%. Furthermore, by exercising call options on shares held by Rainbow Robotics' management, Samsung Electronics became the largest shareholder with a 35% stake. Subsequently, Samsung Electronics incorporated Rainbow Robotics as a consolidated subsidiary. When news broke on the last day of last year that Samsung Electronics would incorporate Rainbow Robotics as a subsidiary, Rainbow Robotics' stock price soared like a celebratory firework.

Rainbow Robotics was founded by Professor Oh Junho of KAIST's Department of Mechanical Engineering (currently Professor Emeritus) along with his students in a small laboratory. The company introduced Korea's first bipedal humanoid robot, 'Hubo,' and currently produces various types of robots including collaborative robots and dual-arm robots. The company's strengths lie in its excellent technology and price competitiveness. It developed key components used in robots in-house, reducing production costs to half compared to competitors, thus achieving price competitiveness. It is also evaluated to have superior performance compared to Chinese counterparts.

Going forward, Professor Oh will contribute to the development of future robots, including humanoids, at Samsung Electronics' Future Robot Promotion Team. As his first step, Professor Oh will visit the world's largest information technology (IT) and consumer electronics exhibition, 'CES 2025,' held in Las Vegas, USA, on the 7th (local time), upon Samsung Electronics' invitation. It is known that Professor Oh will tour the exhibition booths with related personnel. Since many global IT and robotics companies participate in this exhibition, he is expected to closely examine this year's robot trends and technologies.

Samsung Electronics announced plans to accelerate the development of future robots such as humanoids by securing the largest shareholder status in Rainbow Robotics. Along with this, it established the Future Robot Promotion Team directly under the CEO. Humanoids are robots that think and act like humans based on artificial intelligence (AI), and global big tech companies such as Tesla and Nvidia are fiercely competing to commercialize these robots. Samsung Electronics plans to combine AI and software technology with Rainbow Robotics' robotic technology to accelerate the development of intelligent advanced humanoids.