VinMotion
Last reviewed
May 11, 2026
Sources
14 citations
Review status
Source-backed
Revision
v6 · 2,954 words
Improve this article
Add missing citations, update stale details, or suggest a clearer explanation.
Suggest edit
CtrlK
Last reviewed
May 11, 2026
Sources
14 citations
Review status
Source-backed
Revision
v6 · 2,954 words
Add missing citations, update stale details, or suggest a clearer explanation.
| VinMotion | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Full name | VinMotion Joint Stock Company |
| Founded | January 2025 |
| Parent company | Vingroup (51% ownership) |
| Chairman and chief scientific officer | Dr. Nguyen Trung Quan (Quan Nguyen) |
| Headquarters | TechnoPark Tower, Vinhomes Ocean Park, Gia Lam, Hanoi, Vietnam |
| Industry | Robotics, Embodied AI |
| Products | Humanoid robots |
| Charter capital | VND 1 trillion (approximately $38.5 to $40 million) |
| Website | vinmotion.net |
VinMotion is a Vietnamese robotics company and subsidiary of Vingroup that develops and manufactures general-purpose humanoid robots. Founded in January 2025 with a charter capital of VND 1 trillion (roughly $38.5 to $40 million depending on exchange rate), the company is responsible for creating the first humanoid robots manufactured in Vietnam. Its robots are initially being deployed at VinFast electric vehicle factories for tasks such as component transportation and quality inspection, with plans to expand into logistics, healthcare, education, customer service, and home care.[1][2][7]
VinMotion is led by Dr. Nguyen Trung Quan (also known as Quan Nguyen), who serves as chairman and chief scientific officer. He holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and previously worked on the famous MIT Cheetah quadruped project as a postdoctoral researcher. He is also an assistant professor at the University of Southern California. VinMotion sits alongside two related Vingroup robotics businesses: VinRobotics, launched in November 2024, and VinDynamics, established in September 2025. Together they form Vingroup's robotics ecosystem, which itself sits inside a larger group of technology subsidiaries that includes VinAI, VinBigData, and VinFast.[1][3][8][11]
Vingroup's board approved the creation of VinMotion on January 10, 2025, with the new company registered as VinMotion Joint Stock Company. Vingroup, Vietnam's largest private conglomerate, is chaired by Pham Nhat Vuong, who in 2013 became the country's first dollar billionaire. The conglomerate provided VinMotion with VND 1 trillion (around $39 million at the time) in charter capital. Vingroup itself holds 51% of the company, while Pham Nhat Vuong personally holds 24.5%, with the remaining 24.5% split between his two sons, Pham Nhat Quan Anh and Pham Nhat Minh Hoang.[1][2][8]
The formation of VinMotion came as part of a broader push by Vingroup into hi-tech industries. VinRobotics had been launched two months earlier, in November 2024, with the same VND 1 trillion charter capital and a focus on industrial automation rather than humanoid platforms. In September 2025, Vingroup added a third robotics company, VinDynamics, with charter capital of VND 500 billion. The three businesses divide the work: VinRobotics handles industrial automation and AI driven robotics, VinMotion concentrates on general-purpose humanoids, and VinDynamics focuses on research, production, and technology transfer for core robotics components. VinDynamics later signed a memorandum of understanding with German motion technology company Schaeffler in April 2026 to co-develop key components for humanoid robots.[8][11]
From the start, VinMotion's mandate was unusually broad. The official stated goal was to develop versatile humanoid robots for manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, education, customer service, and home care, with both domestic and export markets in mind. The first phase, however, was narrower: deploy robots inside VinFast electric vehicle factories to handle parts transportation, quality inspection, and other repetitive assembly support.[1][7]
VinMotion's engineering team produced its first humanoid robot, the Motion 1, within about three months of the company's founding. By mid-2025, the team had built and tested five prototype versions. Pham Nhat Vuong, on revealing the robot publicly, said: "VinMotion is proof of the Vietnamese people's ability to master high technology. We want to affirm that Vietnam is not only a place for technology consumption, but also a place that can create technology." The Motion 1 was billed as the first humanoid robot manufactured in Vietnam and was demonstrated to Hanoi city leaders during the summer of 2025.[2][3][6]
The Motion 1 was designed for light-duty industrial tasks on factory floors, including material transport, visual inspection, and basic assembly support. Initial deployments were planned for VinFast electric vehicle factories. According to VinMotion, the robot, including its mechanical, electronic, and software systems, was developed entirely in-house by the Vietnamese engineering team.[2][3][6]
In August 2025, VinMotion staged two high profile public demonstrations of the Motion 1 in Hanoi. The first occurred on August 8, 2025, during Vingroup's 32nd anniversary celebration, where multiple Motion 1 units performed a synchronized dance routine in front of more than 1,000 attendees. Video of the event spread widely online and helped position VinMotion as a serious contender in the humanoid robotics race.[5][10]
A second demonstration took place on August 19, 2025, at the groundbreaking and inauguration ceremony for 250 key projects marking the 80th anniversary of Vietnam's August Revolution and National Day, held in Dong Anh ward, Hanoi. Party General Secretary To Lam, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, and Vingroup chairman Pham Nhat Vuong watched the robots walk, wave, and interact with onlookers using simple gestures.[5][9]
Nguyen Trung Quan, speaking after the August 8 performance, framed the dance demo as a technical milestone for multi-robot coordination: "This live dance demo is a technological milestone that will give us the confidence to deploy multiple robots simultaneously in practical applications shortly." He also pointed to the engineering work behind the demonstration, noting that the team had to optimize real time computing and network infrastructure so that the robots could stay synchronized despite Wi-Fi interference from the crowd.[5][10]
In late 2025 and early 2026, VinMotion unveiled its second-generation humanoid, the Motion 2, which represented a substantial upgrade in hardware, software, and AI capability. The Motion 2 was developed around what the company calls a "3S" philosophy: self-standing (autonomous recovery from falls), self-charging (detecting low power and autonomously navigating to charging stations), and stable continuous operation.[4][5]
A partnership with Qualcomm was announced for the Motion 2, with the robot using the Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ9 Series processor for on-device AI and physical reasoning. (Some early secondary reports incorrectly cited the newer Dragonwing IQ10 platform, which Qualcomm separately unveiled at CES 2026; the official Qualcomm press release confirms the IQ9.) VinMotion debuted the Motion 2 at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, where it appeared at Qualcomm Booth 5001 and performed live demonstrations including weight lifting and martial-arts style punching. This was the company's first major international showcase.[4][6][12]
In November 2025, VinMotion announced plans to open an office in Southern California to accelerate development and deployment of its industrial humanoids. The company began hiring AI researchers with expertise in large language models, automatic speech recognition (ASR), and motion (control, planning, and manipulation). Quan Nguyen's existing affiliation with the University of Southern California gives the new office a natural anchor on the West Coast. The CES 2026 appearance in January marked the company's first step toward international visibility, and Vingroup leadership has framed the US presence as part of a longer term plan to position Vietnam as a credible player in the global humanoid robotics market.[4][6][12]
VinMotion's day-to-day technical direction comes from Dr. Nguyen Trung Quan. Born and educated initially in Vietnam, he later moved abroad to pursue advanced studies in robotics. Public profiles describe his trajectory as follows:[3][6][13]
| Stage | Detail |
|---|---|
| Doctorate | Mechanical engineering, Carnegie Mellon University (awarded the best doctoral dissertation in the program) |
| Postdoctoral research | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, contributing to the MIT Cheetah quadruped robot project |
| Faculty appointment | Assistant professor, University of Southern California |
| Role at VinMotion | Chairman and chief scientific officer (also described in Vietnamese press as president and chief strategy officer) |
Under Quan, VinMotion has assembled an engineering team that built five Motion 1 prototypes in under seven months and then produced the more capable Motion 2 within roughly a year of the company's founding.[3][6][10]
The Motion 1 is VinMotion's first-generation bipedal humanoid robot, designed for industrial deployment in factory environments.
| Specification | Motion 1 |
|---|---|
| Height | 175 cm (5 ft 9 in) |
| Weight | 70 kg (154 lbs) |
| Walking speed | Up to 2 m/s |
| Sensors | Dual stereo depth cameras, ultrasonic sensors, 9-axis IMU |
| Navigation | Visual SLAM with 3D obstacle avoidance |
| Interaction | Basic gestures, voice commands, object recognition |
| Operation mode | Semi-autonomous with human-in-the-loop oversight |
| Target applications | Material transport, visual inspection, basic assembly |
The Motion 1 is equipped with dual stereo depth cameras and ultrasonic sensors for environmental perception, along with dexterous handling capabilities for tools and packages. It uses visual SLAM with 3D obstacle avoidance to navigate cluttered factory floors. The robot can walk, wave, and interact using gestures and voice commands, and improves over time based on human feedback and task repetition. It represents a relatively early-stage platform compared to the more advanced Motion 2.[2][3]
The Motion 1 also formed the basis for VinMotion's synchronized dancing performances in August 2025. The robots stayed in sync through a networked real time control system rather than fully pre-scripted routines, a setup that VinMotion engineers say will translate to coordinated multi-robot factory work later on.[5][10]
The Motion 2 is VinMotion's second-generation humanoid robot, representing a substantial upgrade in hardware, AI capabilities, and autonomy.
| Specification | Motion 2 |
|---|---|
| Height | 178 cm (5 ft 10 in) |
| Weight | 75 kg (165 lbs) |
| Actuators | 31 proprietary smart motors |
| Back lifting capacity | 40 kg (88 lbs) |
| Batteries | Two hot-swappable batteries |
| Operation | 24/7 with autonomous self-charging |
| Processor | Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ9 Series |
| AI capabilities | Large language models, automatic speech recognition (ASR), proprietary motion control |
| Languages | Vietnamese and English |
| Hands | Five-fingered dexterous design |
| Design philosophy | "3S": self-standing, self-charging, stable |
The Motion 2 demonstrates a natural humanlike walking gait and can perform physical feats including lifting 40 kg with its back, chopping wood with its fist, doing backbends, and grabbing and throwing objects with its five-fingered hands. The 3S philosophy aims to address two practical pain points for factory deployments: robots that fall and cannot get back up, and robots that need a human attendant to swap batteries. The hot-swappable battery system, combined with the robot's ability to detect low power and navigate to a charging station, supports continuous 24/7 operation in the field.[4][5][13]
A key differentiator of the Motion 2 is its use of the Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ9 Series processor, which provides dedicated on-device AI and physical reasoning ("Physical AI") for real-time motion control. This enables the robot to adapt its movements in real time based on changes in load and terrain conditions without relying on cloud connectivity, which matters for factory floor deployments where reliable networking cannot always be guaranteed.[4][6][12]
The Motion 2 also supports multi-robot synchronization, enabling coordinated operations between multiple units. VinMotion demonstrated this capability through synchronized dancing performances and martial arts style punching routines at CES 2026, which attracted significant public attention and helped raise the company's international profile.[5][6]
VinMotion's technical approach emphasizes on-device AI processing rather than cloud-dependent architectures. The partnership with Qualcomm provides the Motion 2 with dedicated silicon for physical reasoning, enabling real time adaptation to environmental changes without network latency. This is particularly important for factory floor deployments where reliable connectivity cannot always be assumed. The Motion 2 also runs large language model and automatic speech recognition workloads on the same processor, allowing it to take Vietnamese or English voice commands and respond conversationally.[4][6][12]
VinMotion's official website describes its broader product offering as "end-to-end infrastructure for large-scale deployment of humanoid robots, powered by human-in-the-loop AI integration." In practice this means semi-autonomous robots that handle most tasks on their own but can hand off to a remote human operator when they get stuck or face an unusual situation. The feedback loop is meant to let the robots improve over time as they accumulate more supervised examples.[7][13]
The company also markets a "Humanoid of Things" infrastructure stack: an integrated ecosystem combining software, AI modules, deployment tools, and operator interfaces designed to support mass deployment with minimal site-specific setup. This positions VinMotion not just as a hardware vendor but as a platform provider for industrial humanoid deployments.[7]
VinMotion has developed multi-robot synchronization technology that allows multiple Motion 2 units to perform coordinated actions. According to Quan, the underlying system relies on a network infrastructure that enables the simultaneous execution of commands in real time, rather than each robot running a pre-scripted routine in isolation. The technology has applications beyond entertainment demonstrations: VinMotion sees coordinated multi-humanoid teams as the natural unit of work for complex assembly lines.[5][10]
The Motion 2's 24/7 autonomous operation, enabled by its hot-swappable battery system and self-charging behavior, addresses a key practical requirement for industrial deployments. The robot can detect low battery levels and navigate to charging stations independently, which reduces the need for human intervention in continuous operation scenarios. The 3S design philosophy makes this self-sufficiency an explicit product feature rather than a stretch goal.[4][13]
VinMotion's primary deployment target is VinFast, Vingroup's electric vehicle subsidiary. In the first phase, humanoid robots are being deployed in VinFast factories to support tasks such as component transportation and quality inspection. The arrangement gives VinMotion a large-scale, controlled environment for testing and iterating on its robots before broader market release, and it gives VinFast a way to absorb early prototype risk inside the same group.[1][2][7]
The partnership with Qualcomm provides VinMotion with access to purpose-built AI processors for robotics applications. The Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ9 Series chip powering the Motion 2 represents one of the first commercial humanoid deployments of this processor. VinMotion appeared at Qualcomm's main CES 2026 booth (#5001) alongside other Dragonwing partners including Booster Robotics. Qualcomm's broader Dragonwing roadmap, including the newer IQ10 platform announced at the same show, positions both companies in the emerging market for robotics-specific silicon.[4][6][12]
VinMotion sits inside a tightly integrated Vingroup ecosystem. VinAI provides generative AI research, including Vietnamese language models. VinBigData contributes data science and voice assistant technologies. VinFast supplies the real-world deployment environment for early Motion 1 robots. VinRobotics handles industrial automation that complements the humanoid platform, while VinDynamics works on core component research and signed a memorandum of understanding with Schaeffler in April 2026. VinVentures, Vingroup's $150 million venture fund, and VinUniversity round out the group's AI and robotics push.[8][11]
VinMotion plans to open an office in Southern California in 2026 to accelerate development and deployment of its industrial humanoids. The November 2025 announcement called out three hiring priorities: large language models, automatic speech recognition, and motion (covering control, planning, and manipulation). Quan's existing post at the University of Southern California gives the new office a natural connection to Los Angeles area robotics research, and the CES 2026 booth helped raise the company's profile with potential US customers and partners.[4][6][12]
VinMotion's launch came at a moment when several large industrial players, including Tesla with its Optimus platform, Figure AI, 1X Technologies, Agility Robotics, and a wave of Chinese firms such as Unitree and UBTECH, were moving aggressively into general-purpose humanoid robots. Vietnam had not previously been considered a player in this space, so VinMotion's emergence carried both technical and symbolic weight inside the country. Pham Nhat Vuong's framing of the Motion 1 as "proof that Vietnam can be a creator of cutting-edge technology, not just a consumer" was repeated across Vietnamese state media.[2][3][9]
Industry observers have been more cautious about commercial viability. Reports citing the leadership of Xiaomi and Unitree note that humanoid robots currently perform better in public demonstrations than in practical factory settings, a gap VinMotion is explicitly trying to close through its long-running VinFast deployments. Citibank analysis cited in Vietnamese coverage estimates the global humanoid market could reach $7 trillion by 2050 with more than 600 million units deployed.[6][14]