Hyundai Motor Group declared an "AI Robotics expansion" at CES 2026. It announced it will realize an era of robotics that collaborates with people through a human-centered AI robotics ecosystem strategy.
Hyundai Motor Group held a media day on the theme of AI at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2026) held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas on the 5th (local time). At the event, Hyundai Motor Group unveiled its "AI Robotics" strategy, which aims to lead human progress by building a robotics ecosystem in which humans and robots collaborate and by advancing artificial intelligence (AI).
At CES 2026, Hyundai Motor Group declared a shift from hardware- and mobility-centered robotics to human-centered AI robotics using advanced AI technologies. Building on the CES 2022 theme, Expanding human reach, this represents a more advanced goal to be more closely connected to human life and to support and collaborate with humanity.
To realize this goal, Hyundai Motor Group announced three main strategies: human-robot collaboration beginning in manufacturing environments, an AI robotics ecosystem built by consolidating group capabilities, and partnerships with leading AI companies, expressing its intention to expand AI robotics for humanity.
Based on its AI robotics strategy, Hyundai Motor Group plans to become a leading physical AI company centered on humans through its group value chain and broad product portfolio. Physical AI refers to technologies that collect data in real-world environments with hardware and make autonomous decisions, such as Robotics, Smart Factory and Autonomous Driving. As a company capable of securing the core data needed to realize physical AI across the entire value chain—manufacturing, logistics and sales—Hyundai Motor Group will digitize real field data for AI training and apply it back to products, creating a virtuous cycle and expanding industries from mobility to Robotics.
Hyundai Motor Group is also promoting the establishment of the "Hyundai Motor Group physical AI application center," which will play an important role in developing the physical AI ecosystem in Korea, and plans to establish a "robot finished-goods manufacturing and foundry plant" based on customer-customized robot technologies secured using physical AI. A Hyundai Motor Group official said, "Hyundai Motor Group believes that what matters is not what technology can do but what humanity can achieve through technology," adding, "We will realize the corporate value 'Progress for Humanity' by showing true cooperation between humans and robots for human advancement."
▲opening of a human-centered AI robotics era
Hyundai Motor Group and Boston Dynamics unveiled the next-generation electric Atlas prototype and the next-generation electric Atlas product—the core of the AI robotics ecosystem—at CES 2026 for the first time in the world, and plan to systematically train Atlas in group manufacturing environments to accelerate realization of human collaboration.
Hyundai Motor Group has introduced several robots from Boston Dynamics, including Spot and Stretch, into industrial sites to demonstrate practical results and applicability, such as enhanced safety and improved logistics transport efficiency. Atlas is expected to serve as a bridge to realize human-robot collaboration across various industrial sites, beginning with manufacturing environments, by combining Hyundai Motor Group's manufacturing data and proven production capabilities with Boston Dynamics' world-class research and development capabilities.
The next-generation electric Atlas prototype is an initial model created to test core functions needed for future products and serves as an important stepping stone for the next generation of robot development. This model has joints that can rotate 360 degrees and can walk naturally, allowing it to move efficiently and stably while performing fully autonomous operations in work sites. The next-generation electric Atlas product, unveiled for the first time at CES 2026, is a model optimized for real manufacturing-site efficiency, equipped with autonomous learning capabilities and flexibility to apply in any work environment based on Boston Dynamics' extensive experience.
Hyundai Motor Group expects humanoids to form the largest physical AI market and aims to mass-produce the next-generation electric Atlas product as a mass-produced humanoid robot to be deployed widely in industrial sites. To this end, it plans to deploy the next-generation electric Atlas product at production bases, including Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA), and expand Atlas adoption step by step through process-level verification.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor Group will make a record investment of 125.2 trillion won in Korea over five years from this year through 2030. This investment is expected to focus on the Robotics field based on AI advancement, aiming not only to secure the group's future growth engines but also to foster a domestic Robotics innovation ecosystem.
This large-scale investment is expected to play a decisive role in leading the development of the AI/robot industry and the green energy ecosystem and in strengthening Korea's status as a global mobility innovation hub.
In addition, from 2025 Hyundai Motor Group will invest $26 billion in the United States over four years and expand cooperation with leading U.S. companies related to future technologies such as robots, AI and Autonomous Driving. As part of the investment, a newly established robot factory with a capacity of 30,000 units will become a U.S. robot production hub and is expected to serve as the center of the expanding robot ecosystem.
Hyundai Motor Group expects economic cooperation between Korea and the United States to expand and bilateral economic revitalization to be promoted, and its strategy is to broaden business opportunities across diverse fields to strengthen future business competitiveness including mobility.
▲the beginning of AI innovation growing into humanity's universal partner Boston Dynamics
Beyond its role in Hyundai Motor Group's AI robotics ecosystem, Boston Dynamics announced a strategic partnership with Google DeepMind to accelerate future humanoid technology development. This collaboration is significant because it combines Boston Dynamics' Robotics competitiveness with Google DeepMind's robot AI foundation model to lead differentiated technology development.
Boston Dynamics is a pioneer in the field of Robotics and possesses world-class robot technology.
Google DeepMind is a leading research organization that in recent years has advanced the robot AI foundation model "Gemini Robotics" based on the large-scale multimodal generative AI model Gemini. This enables robots, regardless of shape or size, to perceive, reason, use tools and interact naturally with humans.
The two companies plan to fuse cutting-edge robots and robot AI technologies to open a new era of robotics research and accelerate a major transformation of future industries. In particular, they will actively pursue research on AI models for complex robot control to promote the safe and efficient introduction of humanoids with high practical utility.
Zachary Jackowski, Atlas development lead at Boston Dynamics, said, "The convergence of robots and AI is a new innovation that makes human life safer and more prosperous beyond simple technological progress," adding, "The concentration of capabilities through strategic cooperation between Boston Dynamics and Google DeepMind will be an important step in redefining the future industrial paradigm."
Carolina Parada, head of Robotics at Google DeepMind, said, "We are very pleased to explore potential innovations based on the new Atlas in cooperation with Boston Dynamics," adding, "We will continue to pursue new model development to expand the impact of robots and ensure their safe and efficient introduction."
During CES 2026, Hyundai Motor Group prepared a 1,836㎡ (about 557 pyeong) space and will present exhibits that recreate an AI robotics research environment and allow visitors to experience the group's AI robotics technology development process and physical AI firsthand.
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