Hyundai Mobis has joined hands with robot company Boston Dynamics and mobile communications giant Qualcomm. At CES 2026, it established strategic cooperation frameworks with global specialists.
First, Hyundai Mobis, as part of Hyundai Motor Group's AI Robotics ecosystem expansion strategy, built a cooperative framework with Boston Dynamics (Boston Dynamics) and said on the 7th local time that it will supply actuators at the time of mass production of the next-generation humanoid robot Atlas.
With this announcement, Hyundai Mobis secured its first customer in the new business Robotics field, signaling its entry into the robot parts market. Earlier, Hyundai Motor Group announced in August last year the establishment of a new North American robot factory, and Hyundai Mobis plans to use this cooperation to actively contribute to strengthening Hyundai Motor Group's Robotics competitiveness and building a large-scale mass production system.
In recent years Hyundai Mobis has steadily restructured from the vehicle parts industry into high value-added new businesses such as Robotics and SDV. This is part of a mid- to long-term strategy to proactively respond to the rapidly changing future mobility market and build a sustainable business environment.
Hyundai Mobis decided to first enter the robot actuator market, which is most similar to its vehicle parts design capabilities and accumulated mass production experience. An actuator is a core driving device that receives signals from a controller and performs actions, and it accounts for about 60% of the material cost to manufacture a Humanoid Robot.
Hyundai Mobis's establishment of a strategic cooperative relationship with Boston Dynamics and its decision to supply actuators are expected to be positive for both companies. In fact, Boston Dynamics is reported to have highly evaluated Hyundai Mobis's parts design technology, reliability-based evaluation systems, and mass production experience that meets global quality standards.
Through this, Hyundai Mobis has secured a stable supply source in the form of Boston Dynamics, a global leader in this field, as the first customer in its Robotics business. It plans to build a mass production system for actuators and expand its design capabilities with high-performance robotics parts.
The collaboration between the two companies is expected to create a new market in the robotics parts industry and serve as an opportunity to emerge as a leading company in the field. In a robot parts market without an absolute dominant player, it is also expected that achieving economies of scale early by establishing a large-scale supply system based on reliability and price competitiveness will be possible.
In fact, Hyundai Motor Group previously said it plans to establish a 30,000-unit robot factory in North America and operate the site as a robot production hub. As various parts demands are expected for robot mass production, analysis suggests Hyundai Mobis's role at the center of the robot ecosystem will further expand.
Accordingly, Hyundai Mobis plans in the short term to support Hyundai Motor Group's robot mass production and, based on cost and quality competitiveness, ultimately contribute to the expansion of the robot parts market. Starting with actuators, it will expand its research and development scope to core parts such as hand grippers, sensors, controllers and battery packs. By securing various demonstration opportunities, it expects to accumulate meaningful validation data and early establish a portfolio of core Robotics components that meets market demands.
According to global research organizations, the global robot market, currently estimated at about 75 trillion won, is growing at an average annual rate close to 17% and is expected to emerge as a roughly 800 trillion won blue ocean by 2040.
▲U.S. Qualcomm signs MOU for joint development of SDV·ADAS
Alongside this, Hyundai Mobis signed an MOU at CES 2026 with global semiconductor leader Qualcomm (Qualcomm) and agreed to cooperate across a wide range of fields including SDV and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).
On the 7th local time, the MOU held at the Hyundai Mobis exhibition booth was attended by Jung Su-kyung, vice president of the electrics and electronics business unit, and Nakul Duggal, president of Qualcomm's automotive, industrial and IoT division. The two companies said they will use the MOU to develop integrated solutions optimized for emerging markets and pursue orders from global customers.
First, Hyundai Mobis and Qualcomm plan to showcase integrated advanced driver-assistance system technology based on each company's system integration, sensor fusion, image recognition and System-on-Chip technologies. They plan to maximize synergy by applying Qualcomm's semiconductor chip (Application Processor) to Hyundai Mobis's controllers and software.
Hyundai Mobis will also accelerate development of a software platform emphasizing scalability. Through this, it plans to develop an SDV integrated solution that improves performance, efficiency and stability.
The two companies said they will develop these advanced technologies optimized for autonomous driving and autonomous parking to meet the needs of emerging markets including India, because the auto markets in those countries are expanding from small cars to a variety of vehicle types and ADAS penetration is rapidly increasing.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Mobis and Qualcomm have also achieved research and development results in the V2X field. The two companies have developed a system that uses non-line-of-sight sensors to detect obstacles in areas not visible to the human eye and perform emergency braking. They recently completed vehicle-based validation and plan to commercialize it.
At CES 2026 Hyundai Mobis is operating a private booth that is open only to pre-invited global customers. The strategy is to expand the scope of orders into new business areas including Robotics, SDV and semiconductors while concentrating on substantive sales activities. During the four days of the exhibition, about 200 global customer representatives from North America and Europe visited the Hyundai Mobis booth and reportedly engaged in in-depth discussions.
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