Samsung and SK Hynix have identified humanoid robots as a new growth engine, according to a report by Korea Economic Daily's international edition, KED Global.

The two Korean semiconductor giants, which supply most of the world's memory chips, are looking beyond their traditional markets in smartphones, PCs and data-center servers. Humanoid robots represent an emerging class of computing devices that could absorb significant volumes of advanced semiconductors.

Why are the chipmakers moving into humanoids?

Both companies face maturing demand in their core memory businesses and have been searching for applications that can drive the next cycle of component sales. Humanoid robots fit that profile for several reasons the industry has been tracking:

• A humanoid combines sensing, real-time processing and actuation in a single platform, requiring high-bandwidth memory and power-efficient logic.
• Robot fleets deployed in factories, warehouses and services would operate at scale, multiplying per-unit chip content.
• The category overlaps technically with the AI accelerator market, where Samsung and SK Hynix already supply high-bandwidth memory to global GPU makers.

KED Global reports that the two companies treat humanoids not as a side project but as a growth engine — language that in Korean corporate planning typically signals resource allocation, dedicated product lines and long-term investment rather than exploratory research.

What does this mean for the memory market?

Samsung is the world's largest memory maker by revenue, spanning DRAM, NAND flash and foundry services. SK Hynix is the leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the stacked-DRAM technology used in AI accelerators. Both firms have benefited from the AI boom that drove HBM demand; humanoid robots would extend that demand curve into embodied machines that must process sensor data on board, in real time, without cloud round-trips.

The strategic logic parallels earlier platform shifts. Just as smartphones created a multi-year super-cycle for mobile memory in the 2010s and AI servers did for HBM in the 2020s, humanoids could anchor the next replacement cycle if the robots reach commercial deployment volumes.

Who else is in the race?

Samsung and SK Hynix would not be entering an empty field. Global technology companies across the US and Asia are developing humanoid platforms for industrial and service applications, and each platform builds a bill of materials that includes vision processors, memory, sensors and power semiconductors. Korean component suppliers competing for that bill of materials would add scale to the country's broader semiconductor ecosystem.

The report does not specify which product lines, customers or investment amounts are involved, and neither company has published detailed humanoid-specific figures. The significance lies in the direction: two of the most influential memory suppliers are formally adding humanoid robots to their growth planning.

For semiconductor industry watchers, the signal is straightforward. Memory demand is increasingly defined by new device classes rather than traditional computing hardware, and humanoid robots are now on the roadmap of the two companies best positioned to supply them.