Samsung hires Stanford AI scholar to lead North America AI development

Samsung appointed Stanford AI researcher Juan Carlos Niebles to head its North America AI Center as executive vice president. The company is shifting focus from software agents like Bixby toward physical AI in robots, manufacturing, and wearables, while expanding partnerships with Nvidia and Google.

• Niebles previously directed AI research at Salesforce and the Stanford-Toyota center
• He succeeds Murat Akbacak, who founded the center in 2024
• Samsung created a Robotics Business Team led by CTO Yoon Jang-hyun
• The company is expanding partnerships with Nvidia and Google to embed Gemini