Insider Brief
- South Korea’s POSCO Group has invested $3 million in U.S.-based Persona AI to accelerate deployment of physical AI across its manufacturing and heavy-industry operations.
- POSCO DX led a $2 million investment via its corporate venture fund, with an additional $1 million from a POSCO Capital-backed scale-up fund, to support joint development and pilot deployments of humanoid robots aimed at replacing hazardous, labor-intensive work at POSCO sites.
- Founded in 2024, Persona AI develops humanoid robots for high-intensity industrial environments, combining tactile sensing, adaptive control, and AI-driven robot foundation models to perform complex tasks autonomously in uneven and unpredictable settings.
South Korea’s POSCO Group has invested a total of $3 million in a U.S. industrial humanoid robotics startup as it moves to expand the use of physical AI across its manufacturing and heavy-industry operations.
POSCO DX, the company’s digital services unit, led a $2 million investment in Persona AI through its corporate venture fund, with an additional $1 million coming from a POSCO Capital-backed scale-up fund, according to POSCO. The funding will support joint development and pilot deployments of humanoid robots designed to replace hazardous, labor-intensive work at POSCO Group sites.
Founded in 2024, Persona AI builds humanoid robots for high-intensity industrial environments such as steel mills and logistics facilities. The company was co-founded by chief executive Nicolaus Radford, a former NASA robotics engineer, and chief technology officer Jerry Pratt, previously CTO at Figure AI. Its systems combine tactile sensing, adaptive control, and AI-driven “robot foundation models” that allow robots to perform complex tasks autonomously in uneven and unpredictable environments.
POSCO pointed to a Morgan Stanley forecast that the global humanoid robot market could reach $38 billion by 2035, driven largely by manufacturing and logistics demand. POSCO DX said the investment aligns with its broader effort to embed AI directly into physical systems, building on earlier work automating cranes, conveyor belts, and unloading equipment at steel plants. The company noted it sees humanoid robots as a way to extend automation beyond fixed machinery into mobile, general-purpose systems.
Image Credit: Posco Group
