Blackstone is buying into Futronic, a South Korean maker of the high-precision actuators that let machines move, in a wager that the least visible hardware in a robot is where the next returns will sit.
The firm did not disclose the size of the investment or the stake it is taking, saying only that the money is coming through its affiliated private equity funds.
Founded in 1993, Futronic builds actuators for motion control, the components that turn a control signal into precise mechanical movement.
Its customers have long been carmakers and industrial robotics firms, though the company has been steering toward emerging mobility, humanoid robots, and the kind of factory automation that investors have spent the past year chasing.
Actuators are the joints of any moving machine, and precision at that layer is what separates a robot that can grip an egg from one that crushes it.
