I translated from a Korean Post.
This is why understanding Korean strategic thinking matters. While Western analysts questioned the Boston Dynamics acquisition, Korean leadership saw a 20-year robotics ecosystem play. My advisory work helps bridge these fundamentally different approaches to risk, investment timelines, and partnership strategy."
1. In corporate management, M&A (mergers and acquisitions) is not just a means to grow in size. It is the most active management act to change the genes of a company and make money for the unseen future.
2. Hyundai Motor Group’s recent actions at CES 2026 will remain a stark example of how a manager’s determination and vision can change the fate of a giant company.
3. This is because the 1 trillion won thrown by Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun five years ago is now returning to a huge future value of 100 trillion won.
4. In 2020, when Chairman Chung Eui-sun acquired Boston Dynamics for about 1 trillion won immediately after taking office, the market’s gaze was closer to concern than expected. Even Google and SoftBank sold with both hands raised, and criticism followed that they were ‘money-eating hippos’ with unclear profit models.
5. Even in the midst of the evaluation that he was “too ahead” at the time, Chairman Chung did not waver. He saw robots not just as mechanical devices, but as a key platform and future technology asset that runs through mobility and manufacturing innovation. And as of 2026, it proves that judgment is not wrong.
6. At CES 2026, Hyundai Motor Group unveiled Boston Dynamics’ electric humanoid robot, ‘Atlas’, in person. Atlas was no longer a research robot for performance in videos. It has been redesigned with a fully motorized structure and has been used on the actual manufacturing site, including assembling and sorting automotive parts and handling heavy loads.
7. The decisive reason why this technology demonstration changed the market’s evaluation was that it presented a clear input time and roadmap. Hyundai Motor Group has nailed down the actual deployment of Atlas to Metaplant America (HMGMA) in Georgia, USA, starting in 2028.
8. The company also announced plans to gradually apply processes that have been proven to improve stability and quality, expand to complex processes such as repetitive work and heavy material handling by 2030, and then expand to global production bases. It was a declaration that heralded the moment when robots would move beyond the realm of ‘possibility’ and into productivity tools.
9. The point where Hyundai Motor’s robot strategy differentiates from other competitors is in the ‘field’. While Tesla and Chinese companies were focusing on developing robots themselves, Hyundai already had the world’s largest ‘captive market’ where robots could be deployed.
10. Hyundai’s huge manufacturing infrastructure, which sells 7.3 million units annually and produces 4.2 million units domestically, is an optimal data mine for learning and upgrading robots. Robots accumulate data and become smart only when they are put into the field, and Hyundai Motor Company has built this circular structure the fastest and most reliably.
11. External partnerships are also working as axes to expand the robotics ecosystem. Hyundai Motor Group is collaborating with global AI companies such as NVIDIA and Google DeepMind to combine computing infrastructure, multimodal cognitive models, and motion control technology. It is a structure that combines hardware mass production capabilities with proven AI partnerships.
12. In addition to this, Hyundai Mobis’ development of precision actuators and Hyundai Globis’ logistics and supply chain optimization have established a group-wide end-to-end (E2E) robotics value chain. As a result, Hyundai Motor Company is emerging as the most powerful robotics alternative in the non-Tesla camp.
13. The results of these innovations are leading to an explosive increase in corporate value. Boston Dynamics’ corporate value, which was around 1.2 trillion won at the time of the acquisition, is currently being estimated at least 30 trillion won to as much as 128 trillion won, depending on the market estimation method. In just five years, the value has increased more than 30 times.
14. This will soon lead to a Nasdaq IPO. Boston Dynamics’ promotion of listing on the Nasdaq is seen as Hyundai Motor’s will to be re-evaluated as a global technology company beyond the limits of Korean companies, and as a strategic layout to absorb the top talent in Silicon Valley.
15. Thanks to Atlas’s successful debut and the embodied mass production roadmap, the stock prices of group companies such as Hyundai Motor, Kia, and Hyundai Mobis also rose, confirming market confidence. The success of the robotics business is driving the re-rating of the entire group.
16. Chairman Chung Eui-sun’s leadership is summarized in his long-term vision, ability to build an ecosystem, and ability to execute. He paid attention to changes in the industrial structure rather than short-term profits, and focused on robots· AI, and manufacturing infrastructure that have been connected into one stream. In the end, Hyundai Motor Company’s great transformation shows that true leadership is not to follow the flow of the industry, but to buy the future in advance at an inflection point.