Hyundai bets big on Physical AI, doubles down in Silicon Valley

With Executive Chair Euisun Chung’s proclamation, the automaker is looking to further develop advanced technologies in its vehicles and robots.

Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) is positioning itself as a physical AI company rather than simply an automaker, and is strengthening its innovation partnerships in San Francisco to further that vision.

The company announced that Jeremy Ma, an executive director who joined Hyundai last month, will lead its newly established Advanced Vehicle Platform Silicon Valley. Ma previously worked on autonomous driving and robotics research at NASA, Apple and Nvidia.

Hyundai is planning to host the HMG Tech Talent Forum in Silicon Valley in September in an effort to recruit talent in AI, software, robotics and future mobility.

“The new unit and Ma’s recruitment came from Executive Chair Euisun Chung’s vision of leading the coming physical AI era, aiming to leverage Silicon Valley’s concentration of top tech companies and talent to accelerate future innovation and secure a new growth engine,” Hyundai said in a statement.

Chung on Friday declared Hyundai’s identity as a physical AI company at the San Francisco AI Summit, saying the effort would start with making individual devices such as cars and robots more intelligent.

Since 2011, Hyundai has run a global open-innovation hub in Silicon Valley called Hyundai Cradle to discover promising startups, and in April it partnered with San Francisco’s Exploratorium, a hands-on science museum.

Ahead of the AI Summit, Chung met Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at Nvidia’s headquarters in Santa Clara to discuss jointly building a Robot Reference Platform for advanced humanoids. The goal is to create an open technology ecosystem that allows domestic universities, research institutions and startups to develop robotic AI using this platform and test it in real-world environments.

The two also reached a concensus on cooperating in self-driving technologies in Genesis vehicles. Genesis is Hyundai’s luxury subbrand. 

Hyundai in October signed a contract with Nvidia to source 50,000 Blackwell GPUs.

The automaker also supplies its Ioniq 5 EVs to Waymo for self-driving technologies and is collaborating with Google DeepMind on developing technology for Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot, Atlas.

BY SARAH CHEA   [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]