As Samsung SDS (018260) accelerates its robotic transformation (RX) business in manufacturing, attention is turning to Walden Robotics, the U.S. physical artificial intelligence company it has singled out as a key partner. Samsung SDS has widened the scope of that partnership, first running technical validation at production sites operated by affiliates including Samsung Electro-Mechanics (009150), SEMES, Samsung Heavy Industries (010140) and Samsung E&A (028050), and then taking an equity stake in Walden in June.
Samsung SDS and Walden are deepening their partnership through technology cooperation and equity investment, industry officials said on the 8th. Samsung SDS made a strategic investment in Walden through Samsung Venture Investment in June, and the two companies are now pursuing a "robot orchestration" business that directs different types of robots through a single control network. The plan is to combine Walden's robotics technology with Samsung SDS's manufacturing and systems integration capabilities to build robot services that can be deployed in actual factories.
Walden was spun off from the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) in January. Its founding team is made up of engineers who have worked on robotics and AI at TRI, MIT, Stanford University and Amazon. Co-founder and Chief Executive Russ Tedrake, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, led large behavior model (LBM) research at TRI. The company's robot pairs a two-armed upper body with a wheeled mobile base and is designed to handle a range of tasks in manufacturing and logistics settings.
Walden's core strength is that its robots do not simply repeat preset motions but learn new tasks during actual work and keep improving their performance. To that end, the company applies LBMs to its robots. An LBM is a physical AI model that lets a robot decide how to act based on visual and sensor data along with task instructions. Walden aims to use the technology to perform a variety of factory tasks — machine operation, tool setup, parts picking and kitting, and assembly — with a single general-purpose robot.
Walden began deploying general-purpose robots on production lines at Toyota's North American plants in February, just a month after its founding, and they are handling actual processes there. In July, the company raised $300 million in a funding round co-led by Toyota and Deviation Capital at a valuation of $1.1 billion. Nvidia, Boeing and Samsung Venture Investment were among the main investors.
Samsung SDS is expected to build on the partnership to expand its manufacturing RX business to major companies at home and abroad, as well as to Samsung affiliates. Under the arrangement, Walden would supply robots that perform and learn from actual tasks, while Samsung SDS would connect them to existing factory systems and operate multiple types of robots as an integrated fleet.
