Naver is moving to expand its physical AI business by investing in Ubify, a global drone specialist.
Naver said on the 1st that it made a strategic investment in Ubify, which has drone swarm flight technology and an autonomous flight platform.
Ubify is a Korea-based drone corporations that has targeted overseas markets since its early days. Recently, as the first among Korea-based drone corporations, it won the "$10 million Export Tower," and it is the only Korea-based corporations participating on the board of the global organization Dronecode Foundation, which manages PX4, the core operating system of the drone industry.
With this investment, Naver will seek ways to combine its AI, cloud, and digital twin technologies with Ubify's drone hardware and operations technologies. In particular, when autonomous flight drones are combined with AI, they can expand into physical AI services that operate in real spaces, such as logistics, facility inspections, disaster response, and Smart City management.
Naver has already accumulated technologies that link real spaces and AI by controlling robots using the cloud-based robot operating system Arc at its second headquarters, 1784. Ubify also raised 60 billion won this year and is advancing swarm drone and autonomous flight technologies.
Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon said, "The potential for AI to expand into the real world, including physical AI, Autonomous Driving, and Robotics, is growing," adding, "We expect Naver's physical AI capabilities and Ubify's drone technologies to create new possibilities across various industries."