RealWorld, a physical artificial intelligence (AI) company, announced Thursday that it has appointed Carl Choi as its U.S. representative to ramp up American operations ahead of the planned unveiling of its robot foundation model this year. The appointment is aimed at accelerating business development and expanding industrial partnerships in the U.S., building on the verification experience RealWorld has accumulated at industrial sites across Asia.
Choi most recently served as a deep-tech fund partner at Alumni Ventures, where he led investments in AI, robotics, and foundational technology. He previously held an investment role at Solasta Ventures. At RealWorld, he will be responsible for building strategic partnerships in robotics, manufacturing, and logistics in the U.S., as well as formulating the company's North American market entry strategy. He will also strengthen ties with the U.S. startup ecosystem, including venture capital firms, to identify strategic investors, technology partners, and business collaboration opportunities. Choi will additionally serve as RealWorld's external representative to U.S. industry, media, and the broader technology ecosystem.
RealWorld has been validating the applicability of its robot foundation model at actual industrial sites, with key bases in the U.S., South Korea, and Japan. The company is developing a robot foundation model that aims to replicate human-level hand movements, based on high-precision multimodal data collected from manufacturing and logistics sites. RealWorld's model is characterized by its reliance on 4D+ multimodal data gathered from real industrial environments and its independence from specific hardware. Key strategic partners and collaborators include SK Telecom, LG Electronics, KDDI, and ANA.
"This appointment is not simply about adding local staff in the U.S. It is about establishing a bridgehead to connect RealWorld's technology with the North American industrial ecosystem," RealWorld CEO Ryu Jung-hee said. "With this appointment, we will further accelerate the building of long-term industrial partnerships in the U.S."
Choi added, "RealWorld's foundation model is differentiated in that it was trained directly at actual production sites together with industrial partners by a world-class research team. Going forward, I will make this differentiation clearly known to the U.S. robotics and industrial sectors, and expand the same kind of deep, long-term partnerships in the U.S. that have been built in Asia."
RealWorld plans to hold large-scale robot foundation model launch events starting in the U.S. in May, followed by Japan and South Korea. In line with the model's unveiling, the company plans to fully activate strategic partnerships in the U.S.