ANALYSIS LG Electronics is positioning itself as a component supplier to an industry that has not yet proved its end products can earn their keep, staking a new business line on the conviction that humanoid-robot joints will consolidate faster than the robots themselves.
Why it matters
Actuators account for an estimated 60 to 70 percent of a humanoid robot's total material cost5,3. A single humanoid requires roughly 30 of them. Whoever locks in supply contracts for those components captures the largest share of the bill of materials, regardless of which robot platform wins. ◆ LG's play is essentially a wager that the component layer will consolidate faster than the finished-robot layer, letting it extract value even if the end market remains fragmented.
The big picture
At IFA 2026 in Berlin, Baek Seung-tae, head of LG's Home Appliance Solution division, told reporters the company is "in active talks with several big-tech companies over actuator orders"9. He added: "Nothing is finalized yet, but we have only a final meeting left with one particular company next month, and I am eager to share the news as soon as possible". Technical meetings scheduled for October will assess production readiness with specific partners1.
LG unveiled its LG Actuator Axium brand at CES earlier this year7. The lineup currently features nine models of various sizes. The company is building a fully automated production line at its Changwon plant in South Korea and plans to establish mass production of Axium within the year6,8. LG claims its motors can be more than 30 percent lighter than competitors', drawing on what it describes as six decades of motor manufacturing expertise.
Baek framed actuators as one of three B2B growth pillars alongside built-in appliances for builders and commercial washing machines4. "B2B sales currently account for slightly more than 10% of our total revenue," he said, adding that the company is "investing significant resources" in all three areas. His stated ambition is for actuator revenue to match the scale of LG's existing external compressor supply business within one to two years.
Meanwhile, the robots those actuators would power are still working through basic deployment constraints. Agility Robotics posted a clip of its Digit V5 rearranging a room, dragging a couch and shifting furniture, demonstrating generalized manipulation outside a safety cage11,12. The company's new shipping target for the first Digit V5 units is December. Chief business officer Daniel Diez characterized the core challenge as "more about skills and batteries than cages," but acknowledged that physical barriers "take up floor space, disrupt workflows, and essentially kill deals".
ANALYSIS LG's October timeline carries real weight. No customers have been officially announced. The company's stock surged more than 8 percent on the Seoul exchange after the IFA remarks, with investors treating the prospect of big-tech orders as a catalyst. That market reaction raises the stakes: if October passes without a confirmed deal, the narrative shifts from "nearing first major order" to "still pitching."
The strategic logic mirrors the playbook LG already runs in air-conditioning compressors, where it sells a critical subsystem to competitors and partners alike. Actuators offer a similar dynamic: robot makers need precision motor-drive assemblies but few want to build them in-house, especially when cost pressure is intense. LG is also preparing both wheeled and bipedal humanoid designs for its own use, planning to deploy them first at its Tennessee plant and Changwon smart factory before exploring home applications10. That internal demand gives the Changwon line a baseline customer even if external orders lag.
Agility's cage-free Digit V5 demo and December delivery target illustrate the demand-side uncertainty LG is navigating. Humanoid makers are still proving that their machines can operate safely alongside humans in unstructured environments. Until that threshold is crossed at commercial scale, actuator volumes will remain modest. LG is, in effect, building the supply infrastructure ahead of confirmed demand.
Baek addressed the competitive threat from Chinese manufacturers directly, arguing that their low-price offensive is losing steam as their own costs rise. He pointed to LG's in-house production of core components and its global manufacturing footprint as differentiators.
What's next
October's technical meetings with at least one specific big-tech partner will determine whether LG can convert talks into a binding order. LG plans to have its fully automated Changwon actuator line operational by year-end. Agility's first Digit V5 deliveries are targeted for December. Baek set a concrete benchmark: actuator revenue matching compressor-business scale within one to two years.