Key points
- Robotis (108490) rose 22.5% on Sept. 4
- KB Securities note cited Q2 turnaround and a US rule
- FCC rule covers qualifying foreign-made mobile robots, not just Chinese models
- Robotis may benefit most as a parts supplier, not a robot maker
On Sept. 4, shares of South Korea's Robotis rose 22.5% to 304,500 won (US$225.56), up from 248,500 won (US$184.07) the day before. The move came after Kim Seon-bong, an analyst at KB Securities, published a note pointing back to Robotis's second-quarter results and a US rule on foreign robots, both of which were already weeks old.
Robotis disclosed its second-quarter results on Aug. 14. Revenue rose 95.1% from a year earlier to 15.37 billion won (US$11.39M), and operating profit rose 722.9% to 1.98 billion won (US$1.47M), a year-over-year comparison, not a turnaround from a loss. The company had posted an operating loss in the first quarter, tied to a one-time employee stock compensation expense, and Q2's profit is better read as a sequential rebound from that, not a shift from unprofitable to profitable on the year.
By region, an Aug. 18 report from Korea Investment & Securities analyst Choi Kun put North America revenue at 5.4 billion won, up 142% from a year earlier and 51.6% from the first quarter, and China revenue at 1.5 billion won, up 154% year over year and 112.5% from the first quarter. China now makes up 9.7% of Robotis's total revenue, versus an average of about 500 million won (US$370,370) a quarter over the prior two years.
Kim's note also cited a separate data point on China's humanoid robot industry as a whole, not Robotis specifically. Chinese small and midsize humanoid makers shipped 2,600 robots in the first half of 2026, up from 600 a year earlier, a 333% increase. Robotis makes Dynamixel, a smart actuator that combines a motor, gearbox, controller and communications module in one part, and some of those Chinese manufacturers are among the buyers.
The US regulatory piece is more complicated than "China is blocked." On July 28, the Federal Communications Commission added foreign-produced advanced robotic devices to its Covered List, meaning new models can't get the equipment authorization needed to import and sell in the US unless the Department of War grants a Conditional Approval. Coverage is limited to ground-mobile robots over 4.4 pounds with sensors, wireless connectivity and onboard software, a group that takes in humanoids, quadrupeds and wheeled delivery or warehouse robots while leaving out fixed industrial arms. No country is named, and the trigger is where a device is made rather than who makes it, meaning a new humanoid built by Robotis in Korea faces the same approval hurdle as a Chinese one. Models authorized before July 28 are unaffected.
A separate FCC action closed a "component-part loophole," barring authorized devices from using a logic-bearing hardware component made by an entity specifically named on the Covered List, under defined conditions, narrower than a blanket ban on Chinese-made parts. It still gives US and allied robot builders a reason to look past named Chinese suppliers toward parts makers like Robotis.
Kim's note framed Robotis as a likely beneficiary of the FCC action and pointed to its cost position against Chinese rivals. Translated from Korean, Kim wrote that Robotis "plans to build a data factory in Uzbekistan to collect and sell the real-world action data that is the key bottleneck for humanoid VLA (Vision-Language-Action) models," and that "based on labor costs about 28% of China's level, it will secure cost competitiveness and expand actuator production capacity from 300,000 units at the end of 2025 to more than 5 million units by 2031."
Robotis first announced the Uzbekistan plan in August 2025 and held a groundbreaking ceremony in June 2026 at the Yangi Avlod Special Industrial Zone in Tashkent, according to Uzbekistan's own electronics industry association. The site pairs a robot-parts production line with the data factory on about 10 hectares of land, backed by close to US$70 million (about 110 billion won, as stated in the original announcement) of investment, and is expected to create more than 2,000 jobs. Other Korean robot stocks rose alongside Robotis on Sept. 4, including TPC Robotics, which hit its own daily limit up 30%, and RoboStar, up 12.4%.
