Hyundai and DEEPX Partner to Develop Next-Generation Physical AI Platform for Robotics

Hyundai Motor Group's Robotics LAB and DEEPX have announced a strategic partnership to build a next-generation Physical AI computing platform. This collaboration aims to create the brain for advanced robots, enabling them to process complex artificial intelligence tasks locally rather than relying on distant servers. The focus is on integrating high-performance AI capabilities directly into robotic hardware to ensure seamless interaction with the physical world.

The platform centers on DEEPX's DX-M2 chip, an ultra-low-power semiconductor built on a 2-nanometer process. This technology allows robots to utilize Vision-Language-Action (VLA) and Vision-Language Models (VLM) to understand natural language and visual environments in real time. By processing data on the device, the robots avoid the latency and heat issues common in current designs.

While companies like NVIDIA have dominated this space with the Jetson Orin platform, Hyundai found those solutions too power-hungry for broad deployment. The new DX-M2 architecture is designed to be significantly more energy-efficient, consuming less than five watts while delivering 80 Trillion Operations Per Second. This leap in efficiency is critical for battery-operated humanoid robots like Hyundai's recent Atlas model.

Both companies have been working toward this goal for three years, moving from initial prototyping to high-volume production planning. The project focuses on four key areas: semiconductor architecture, robotics hardware, a physical AI software stack, and application libraries. This vertical integration ensures that the hardware and software are perfectly tuned for specific robotic tasks.

The shift toward Physical AI comes as the industry moves away from data centers to the edge, where real-world interaction happens. Experts predict the semiconductor market for physical AI will reach $123 billion by 2030, with robotics as the primary driver. This partnership positions South Korean technology at the forefront of this rapidly expanding global sector.

DEEPX CEO Lokwon Kim stated that the AI industry is moving into an era where ultra-low-power computing in the real world is the core infrastructure. Hyundai Vice President Dong Jin Hyun added that the goal is to create robots that coexist naturally with humans. Their joint effort aims to standardize the computing architecture used in intelligent machines worldwide.