Lovros VP: Humanoid Robot Rentals Could Cost Half of Human Labor by 2030

Nam Chang-mo, vice president of the Korean humanoid company Lovros, said monthly subscription fees for renting humanoid robots could fall to about half the cost of human labor by 2030, at the Seoul AI Robot Show Physical AI Forum on October 7, 2026.

Nam calculated monthly labor costs of about 4.93 million won, assuming an hourly wage of 14,000 won, 16 hours a day in two shifts, and 22 working days a month. Applying discounts of 25% in 2026 and 50% in 2030 relative to labor costs gives monthly subscription fees of about 3.7 million won and about 2.46 million won respectively, according to byline.network.

He said humanoids would spread in earnest in the Korean market around 2029, and predicted it would be easier to recover investment around 2028, when manufacturing costs fall below 35 million won. From then on, he said, performance rather than price would become the main criterion for adoption.

Nam also said humanoids could become a red ocean with fierce competition by 2035, and that global companies including those in China and the US would likely present concrete figures for stable continuous operating time and RaaS business models in the next year or two. He added that 5- and 10-year RaaS contracts are being signed with humanoid companies in the US, and that most global companies, including Lovros, have not yet secured enough data to show stable continuous operating time, since the market is still in its early stage.

Lovros launched its bipedal humanoid Igris-C in November last year and said it has sold more than 20 units so far. Nam said collaborative robots took 11 years, from 2003 to 2014, to spread after their technology emerged, whereas humanoids completed walking technology in 2024 and moved to mass-production plans.