JPM Korea Robotics and Humanoid

J P M O R G A N Asia Pacific Equity Research 25 August 2026

Korea Robotics and Humanoids How we envisage the humanoid era; HMG robotics value at $57bn; stay Overweight on HMC/Kia

We remain in the bull camp on humanoids, since: 1) early deployments can create Korea Auto, Robotics, Battery and a learning flywheel: putting robots into real workflows accelerates iteration; and Utility 2) humanoid's stranded capex risk is structurally lower. We expect early US Sonny Lee AC demand to outstrip supply: while task-specific robots often win on throughput per ( dollar in structured settings, humanoids should gain share in less structured work J.P. Morgan Securities (Far East) Limited, Seoul with frequent edge cases. Industrial adoption should lead given higher willingness Branch to pay and clearer ROI, with consumer adoption inflecting later as BOM declines. Seri Yoon We believe the key bottlenecks are brain (‘data’), hands, and supply chain ( readiness; we view Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) checks two of the three key boxes, namely 1) access to proprietary data; and 2) supply chain readiness, while J.P. Morgan Securities (Far East) Limited, Seoul Branch early deployments can rely on simple grippers, while dexterous hands can be Infrastructure, Industrials & acquired or outsourced later. We retain Overweight on Hyundai Motor (HMC)/Kia Transport and prefer robot OEMs (HMC/Kia) over parts suppliers (Mobis, Mando, Karen Li, CFA Autoever) as value capture shifts toward system integrators. ( • Humanoids: deploy early, learn faster, without locking in obsolete capex. J.P. Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Limited/ J.P. While the timing of a true ‘breakthrough moment’ remains uncertain, we Morgan Broking (Hong Kong) Limited remain in the bull-camp for humanoids for two reasons: 1) early deployments North America Small and Mid Cap can create a data and learning flywheel: the sooner robots are placed in real Industrials environments, the faster performance can improve through iteration; and 2) the Tomohiko Sano ‘stranded capex risk’ is lower than many assume because humanoids are ( upgradeable, reducing the risk of stranded capex if tasks evolve. Data security issues, often cited as a key adoption hurdle for many customers, can be J.P. Morgan Securities LLC

mitigated through on-premise deployments and robust data governance Ethan Coyle ( frameworks that limit the risk of working data leakage. • We do not underestimate the advantages of task-specific robots; yet we J.P. Morgan Securities LLC expect early US humanoid demand to outstrip supply. End-customers European Autos & Auto Parts would not buy humanoids per se, but they will buy automation that improves Jose M Asumendi throughput, safety, and total cost. In environments with clear procedures and ( limited edge cases, task-specific robots should often deliver better throughput and accuracy per dollar than humanoids. Over time, however, we expect J.P. Morgan Securities plc humanoids to gain share in less structured work where procedures are variable Head of APAC Auto Research and edge cases are frequent, which is common in real operations. Ultimately, Nick Lai the highest-ROI setup may be a hybrid deployment where humanoids and task- ( specific robots are co-located, so one form factor is not forced to do everything. J.P. Morgan Securities Singapore Private Limited/ Taking all these into consideration, we estimate US humanoid demand could J.P. Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Limited/ J.P. reach ~531k units by 2030 (~306k units excluding consumer), exceeding our Morgan Broking (Hong Kong) Limited production capacity forecast of ~300k units. • Industrial scale first, before consumer adoption. We expect the humanoid market to develop first in industrial applications, where willingness to pay is higher and ROI is clearer, given today’s high BOM costs and limited consumer

Equity Ratings and Price Targets Mkt Cap Price Rating Price Target End Company Ticker ($ mn) CCY Price Cur Prev Cur Prev End Date Date Hyundai Motor Company 005380 KS 77,572 KRW 413,000 OW n/c 540,000 Dec-27 530,000 n/c Kia Corp 000270 KS 37,273 KRW 131,200 OW n/c 210,000 Dec-27 200,000 n/c Source: Company data, Bloomberg Finance L.P.…