From vehicles to cities: A three-stage roadmap
Chung described the vision as a progression from smart devices to smart spaces to city-level integration. "The ultimate physical AI vision Hyundai Motor Group pursues begins with intelligent devices such as vehicles and robots, expands to intelligent spaces such as AI factories and ultimately realizes integrated intelligence at the city level," he said.
The first stage adds intelligence to individual robots and vehicles. That then scales to factories where AI connects production, logistics and quality control. The final stage brings together energy, mobility, robotics and other infrastructure into real-time monitored and optimized systems.
The data flywheel and robotics foundation
Hyundai is betting that its manufacturing experience, robotics technology, and data collection systems give it a unique advantage. Data from factories, vehicles, logistics and robot testing will feed into AI models, and improved algorithms will be pushed back to operating sites. The company calls this loop a data flywheel, a mechanism that continuously sharpens its AI capabilities.
The robotics portfolio includes Boston Dynamics' Spot and Stretch machines, plus the MobED mobile platform. But the central piece is the Atlas humanoid. Hyundai expects Atlas robots to eventually work alongside people in manufacturing, logistics and mobility operations. The company plans to deploy development versions of the next-generation electric Atlas at a Georgia manufacturing site and, by 2028, establish a U.S. production system capable of turning out 30,000 robots a year.
Partnerships with Nvidia, Waymo, and Google DeepMind
Chung emphasized that the group's strengths in manufacturing and data can combine with big tech's capabilities to create a new innovation ecosystem. Hyundai is working with Nvidia on AI infrastructure, digital twins of factories, and autonomous-driving technology. It will use 50,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs for model training, validation and deployment, and build virtual replicas of manufacturing facilities to design and optimize processes before applying them physically.
The Nvidia collaboration also extends to a joint robot reference platform for South Korean universities, research institutes and startups. Meanwhile, Hyundai's strategic partnership with Waymo, announced in 2024, will supply specially modified IONIQ 5 EVs for the autonomous-driving fleet. Boston Dynamics is separately working with Google DeepMind to improve AI models and training systems for humanoid robots, aiming to enable complex tasks in real-world environments.
$33.8 billion in domestic AI infrastructure
Hyundai is investing about 9 trillion won ($5.97 billion) in the Saemangeum AI Valley, which will include AI data centers, a robot manufacturing cluster, water electrolysis facilities, and infrastructure for an AI-powered hydrogen city. The robot cluster will manufacture Hyundai robots and provide contract production for smaller companies. The group also plans to invest 42 trillion won ($27.84 billion) over the next decade in the southeastern Yeongnam region, targeting AI-based manufacturing hubs, aerospace industries, and sustainable energy infrastructure.
Why this matters for executives and strategy
Hyundai's move is a concrete example of a traditional industrial company betting that physical AI - not just software - will define the next competitive frontier. The strategy ties together factory automation, robotics, autonomous driving, and energy infrastructure into a closed-loop system that learns from its own data. For executives, the key takeaway is the scale of commitment: nearly $34 billion in capital, a 30,000-unit robot production target, and a data flywheel model that turns operations into a continuous improvement engine. The partnerships with Nvidia and Waymo also signal a pragmatic approach - build what you own, but plug into external AI stacks where it accelerates the roadmap.
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