Invest in Industrial Humanoid Robot Company ‘Persona AI’
Enhancing Productivity and Safety by Introducing Humanoid Robots Specialized for Heavy Industries
POHANG, South Korea — December 23, 2025 — POSCO Group is investing in a U.S. company specializing in industrial humanoid robots to 본격적으로 expand the field of Physical AI, which combines its AI technology with robots.
POSCO DX (CEO Shim Min-seok) announced that it has invested $2 million in Persona AI, a U.S. industrial humanoid robot company, and will actively cooperate for the joint development and field application of robots. This investment was made through the ‘POSCO DX Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) New Technology Investment Fund,’ which was contributed by POSCO DX and POSCO Technology Investment in the second half of this year. Additionally, an extra $1 million was invested through the ‘POSCO CVC Scale-up Fund No. 1,’ contributed by POSCO Technology Investment, bringing the total investment at the POSCO Group level to $3 million.
Persona AI is an industrial humanoid robot company established in June 2024, developing robots specialized for heavy industries with high labor intensity. It was co-founded by Nicholas Radford, a former robotics engineer at NASA, who serves as CEO, and Jerry Pratt, who served as CTO at the American humanoid robot company Figure AI, who serves as CTO.
Persona AI implements precision control capabilities ranging from micro-component assembly to heavy-duty handling, based on NASA’s robotic hand technology. In addition, it possesses multi-axis tactile sensing and adaptive control technologies. This technology integrates data acquired through the robot hand’s multi-axis tactile sensors in real time to simultaneously control force and position, enabling the robot to perform stable tasks even in irregular environments. Furthermore, Persona AI applies AI control algorithms based on the Robot Foundation Model (RFM), which acts as the robot’s brain, allowing the robot to autonomously interact with its surroundings and perform advanced tasks.
Through this investment, POSCO DX plans to finalize cooperation strategies for the development of humanoid robots capable of replacing high-risk manual processes at the group’s industrial sites. The company explained that it intends to accelerate the expansion of Physical AI by combining its industrial AI technology with Persona AI’s robotic technology. Prior to this, POSCO DX, in collaboration with POSCO, has been implementing Physical AI that uses AI technology to efficiently control massive equipment such as cranes, conveyor belts, and cargo handling systems at steel mills without human intervention.
Morgan Stanley, a U.S. investment bank, projected in a report that the global humanoid market will grow at an average annual rate of 63% to reach approximately $38 billion (about 54 trillion won) by 2035, with the manufacturing and logistics sectors accounting for 60% of that total.
Meanwhile, POSCO Group is expanding the operation of its Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) funds, which are intended for venture investment to identify innovative technologies and promising future businesses at the right time, from a focus on POSCO Holdings to a customized approach for its operating companies. In August of this year, POSCO established its first CVC fund worth 50 billion won, while POSCO International and POSCO DX each established a fund worth 25 billion won.
Source: POSCO