Hyundai deepens Nvidia and Waymo ties in robotics push

In July 2026, Hyundai Motor Group built a robot production facility in the US with an annual capacity of up to 30,000 units by 2028, Executive Chair Euisun Chung told the San Francisco AI Summit on 24 July 2026. Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid will be deployed first at the group’s Metaplant America site in Georgia.

The plant rests on a claim that manufacturing scale, rather than algorithms alone, will decide who leads in robotics. Hyundai is extending its work with Nvidia beyond an existing supply agreement for 50,000 Blackwell graphics processing units, and the pair will co-develop a robot reference platform supplying research models to universities, research institutes, and startups.

Autonomous-ready Ioniq 5 vehicles will be built at Metaplant America under the group’s partnership with Waymo, while Boston Dynamics pursues humanoid autonomy with Google DeepMind. The spread of partners shows how much of the critical software layer Hyundai is now sourcing outside its own walls.

At home, the group is putting about KRW 9 trillion (US$6.12 billion) into the Saemangeum AI Valley, covering data centers, a robotics cluster, and electrolyser plants, and a further KRW 42 trillion (US$28.56bn) over the next decade into the Yeongnam region. In a statement, Chung said: “Hyundai Motor Group is evolving beyond the traditional boundaries of automotive manufacturing by expanding into autonomous driving, robotics, and AI-defined factories, accelerating our transformation into a physical AI solution company.”

Impact on the Automotive Market

Robotics has completely revolutionized the automotive market in today’s day and age. Robotics has fundamentally reshaped the automotive industry by enhancing precision, efficiency, and safety, enabling the production of complex vehicles like EVs, and fostering human-robot collaboration. The ongoing integration of AI and humanoid robots promises to further transform manufacturing, maintenance, and logistics, making robotics a central driver of innovation and competitiveness in the automotive sector.

With robotics, technicians and service workers can now automate tasks such as replacing tires and running diagnostic checks. They can also develop precise, repeatable maintenance methods while avoiding monotonous or dangerous tasks altogether. In the upcoming years, AI-boosted vehicle maintenance centers will decrease wait times, improve customer satisfaction, and increase the overall quality of services rendered by maintenance and repair technicians.

The auto industry seems to be putting a high emphasis on robotics. The automotive sector has become the primary adopter of industrial robots. Humanoid robots are transitioning from experimental prototypes to more practical tools when it comes to automotive manufacturing, and are particularly suited for tasks that require human-like mobility and dexterity. While challenges in dexterity, safety, and component supply remain, early deployments demonstrate measurable gains in efficiency, safety, and ROI. With continued AI integration, cost reductions, and strategic investment, humanoid robots are poised to become a core element of smart automotive factories in the upcoming years.

Impact in the Artificial Intelligence Robots Market

The global artificial intelligence robots market size was estimated at USD 20.51 billion in 2025 and is predicted to increase from USD 24.71 billion in 2026 to approximately USD 144.38 billion by 2035, expanding at a CAGR of 21.55% from 2026 to 2035.

According to Precedence Research, the market is witnessing substantial growth, mainly due to the acceleration caused by breakthroughs in machine learning, sensor fusion, and natural language processing, sparking massive investments and widespread adoption of intelligent, autonomous systems to enhance operational efficiency and productivity.

The market is also shifting from conventional rule-based automation to highly adaptive and digitally advanced models. This shift is driven by the adoption of machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, and edge AI technologies. Factors such as growing structural labor shortages, increasing demands for precision intralogistics, and a rising need for continuous operational efficiency are further fueling market growth. Additionally, the rise of Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) models, advancements in sensor hardware, and the deployment of collaborative robots are boosting market accessibility, safety, and adoption.

Impact in the Humanoid Robot Market

The global humanoid robot market size is calculated at USD 1.84 billion in 2025 and is predicted to increase from USD 2.16 billion in 2026 to approximately USD 8.78 billion by 2035, expanding at a CAGR of 16.91% from 2026 to 2035.

According to Precedence Research, one of the primary factors driving the growth of the humanoid robot market is the enhanced use of humanoid robots for surveillance and security applications, including detection of unauthorized intrusion and terror activities, improved use of AI robots in dangerous areas, and research and space investigation enabling connectivity from a distant location.

The market’s growth is accelerating even more with the growing trend and demand for humanoid robots in most sectors to scale up the business and advance the existing human-centric infrastructure. Alongside the hardware and software space is also gaining massive profit in the humanoid robot market with the advancement in exemplifying AI.

Across the humanoid robot market, robotics research is becoming more focused on AI. Previously, humanoid robot research only focused on developing automated machines that looked and behaved like humans. However, more researchers have begun to focus on integrating AI into these robots to improve their performance and make them more autonomous in recent years.