Blackstone (BX.US) bets on the “physical AI” circuit: Spending US$676 million to invest in Futronic, the leading robot actuator in South Korea

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Blackstone Group (BX.US), the world's largest alternative asset management company, announced on Monday that its private equity fund has signed a final agreement with Futronic, a high-precision actuator supplier in South Korea, to make a “major investment” in it. According to people familiar with the matter, the deal valued Futronic at around 1 trillion won (US$676 million). Kuroishi's move is yet another major asset in Korea's industrial technology sector after it completed raising a US$13.1 billion Asian flagship fund in June of this year.

Deal Overview: Founder Remains in Office, Blackstone Empowers Global Expansion

Futronic, founded in 1993 and headquartered in Busan, South Korea, is a technology-based enterprise focusing on high-precision actuators and motion control systems. An actuator is a driving device that converts electrical signals into mechanical motion, and is a core component of the joints of automobiles, industrial robots, and even humanoid robots. The company mainly supplies products to global automotive OEM platforms and their supply chain networks, has major operating bases in South Korea and the United States, and continues to expand its international footprint.

Under the terms of the deal, Futronic founder Jin-ho Ko will continue to serve as Chairman and CEO and work with Blackstone Group to accelerate the company's global growth and terminal market expansion. “Blackstone shares with us its vision of providing advanced mechatronic solutions to valued customers and partners, and their unique scale and global platform will help drive our expansion and reinforce our leadership position in actuator and motion control solutions,” said Ko.

Eugene Cook, head of Blackstone's private equity business in Korea, said: “Futronic represents the essence of the Korean mechatronic industry and has impressive R&D and engineering capabilities, which place it in an advantageous position for the rapid growth of the automotive and robotics market. This partnership underscores Blackstone's commitment to supporting visionary entrepreneurs and family businesses.”

Strategic logic: betting on “the fusion of AI and the physical world”

The core logic of Kuroishi's investment is a firm bet on the “physical AI” trend. Kyungmin Song, head of Blackstone's private equity business, clearly stated in the statement: “Humanoid robots and broader automation are still in the early stages of exponential growth, and Futronic can play an important role among its world-renowned new and existing customers. “The integration of artificial intelligence and the physical world is a key investment theme for Blackstone's private equity business, and we believe Futronic's motion control solutions will be an important driver of this megatrend.”

This judgment is highly consistent with the current strategic direction of the global technology industry. Since 2026, South Korea's investment in the field of physical AI has exploded. Samsung Electronics announced an investment of about 60 trillion won to build a mass production line for humanoid robots, while SK Group plans to invest about 140 trillion won to build an artificial intelligence data center. Samsung Electronics will also build a humanoid robot manufacturing plant in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, with an estimated investment of 13 trillion won. The Korean government is also actively promoting it, and the Financial Supervisory Service plans to supply about 16 trillion won in AI-related fields for six major entities, including AI, robotics, and future automobiles.

Last week, Nvidia (NVDA.US) and Toyota Motor Corporation (TM.US) jointly announced the expansion of their 10-year strategic cooperation to expand the application of physical artificial intelligence (Physical AI) from the field of autonomous driving to a wider range of physical scenarios such as robots, smart factories, and smart cities.

Futronic's actuator products are the key bridge between AI decision-making and physical action — whether it's the precise control of an autonomous vehicle or the joint movement of a humanoid robot, it is inseparable from the support of high-precision actuators. Kuroishi entered the market at this time with the intention of placing the card as a core link in the industry chain.

Industry significance: actuators - the “last mile” of AI physicalization

Futronic's actuator circuit is on the cusp of the global technology industry. As AI expands from the pure digital world to the physical world, the strategic value of the actuator as a key part of “transforming AI decisions into physical actions” is being re-evaluated.

Looking at the automotive industry, demand for high-precision actuators continues to rise with the spread of electric vehicles and autonomous driving technology. Looking at industrial robots, automation upgrades in the global manufacturing industry are accelerating, and actuators are the core components of industrial robot joints. Looking at the longer-term humanoid robot circuit, the actuator is also the key to determining the flexibility and accuracy of robot movement — which is why in its statement, Blackstone specifically emphasized that “humanoid robots and broader automation are still in the early stages of exponential growth.”

Asian layout: $13.1 billion of ammunition is in place, and South Korea has become a strategic location

The investment occurred in the context of the accelerated expansion of Blackstone's private equity business in Asia. In June of this year, Blackstone announced that its flagship fund focusing on the Asian market, Blackstone Capital Partners Asia III (BCP Asia III) has completed the final fundraising, with a total scale of US$13.1 billion (approximately RMB 88.6 billion), exceeding the US$10 billion fundraising target and becoming Blackstone's largest private equity fund in the Asian region.

As of the first quarter of 2026, Blackstone Group's asset management scale exceeded 1.3 trillion US dollars, an increase of 12% over the previous year, and the capital inflow for the quarter reached 69 billion US dollars. Over the past 24 months, Blackstone has been one of the most active global investment institutions in the Asia-Pacific region, completing a total of 12 transactions, with a total investment scale of over 7 billion US dollars.

Blackstone held Futronic for US$676 million, which was the first time that its investment theme of “integrating AI and the physical world” was launched in Korea. At a time when global capital is competing for AI infrastructure, Kuroishi has chosen a differentiated path — not chasing the model layer or computing power layer, but betting on an “execution layer” connecting the digital and physical worlds.

Korea has become one of Blackstone's key markets in Asia. This investment in Futronic not only continues Kuroishi's main investment line in the industrial technology sector in Asia, but is also in line with its private equity strategy of “supporting visionary entrepreneurs and family businesses.”