Hyundai Sets Up AVP Unit in Silicon Valley to Accelerate Physical AI

Hyundai Motor Group is strengthening cooperation with the global innovation ecosystem, using San Francisco as its base. The San Francisco Bay Area is home to Silicon Valley, a global innovation hub where world-class technology companies, startups, research institutions and universities are organically connected. Hyundai's strategy is to accelerate its efforts to secure competitiveness in physical artificial intelligence (AI) in this location, where the world's top technology, talent and creativity are concentrated.

Hyundai Motor (005380) Group said on the 26th that it recently established a unit under its AVP (Advanced Vehicle Platform) Division, the group's future mobility research organization, in Silicon Valley. The newly established AVP Silicon Valley is led by newly recruited Executive Vice President Jeremy Ma. Ma is a technology expert who earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from UCLA and master's and doctoral degrees from Caltech, and built a career in autonomous driving, robotics, vision and system integration at global big tech firms including NASA, Apple, Toyota Research Institute (TRI) and Nvidia.

After establishing a global open innovation base in Silicon Valley in 2011, Hyundai Motor Group reorganized it into 'Hyundai Cradle' in 2017 and has continued to discover, invest in and collaborate with startups in AI, autonomous driving, robotics, smart cities and eco-friendly energy.

In September, the group will hold the 'HMG Tech Talent Forum' to secure talent in AI, software, robotics and future mobility. It plans to introduce Hyundai Motor Group's future vision and technology innovation achievements, and to operate a linked recruitment program. If Hyundai Cradle and the unit under the AVP Division play the role of building the outward foundation for future innovation, the HMG Tech Talent Forum can be seen as an investment in the talent that will create innovation together.

The group is also expanding cooperation in science and culture. In April, Hyundai Motor Group signed a strategic partnership with the Exploratorium, an experiential science museum in San Francisco. Based on this, it will build an experiential science museum at the Seoul Global Business Complex (GBC) in 2032. The Exploratorium is a world-renowned experiential science museum that has spread scientific thinking and creativity through exhibitions in which visitors directly participate and experience.

Earlier, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung attended the 'San Francisco AI Summit' held in San Francisco on the 24th and presented the 'Hyundai Motor Group Physical AI Vision.' The Hyundai Motor Group Physical AI Vision is a concept to realize city-level integrated intelligence, starting with individual devices such as cars and robots and passing through AI factories. Chung said that to achieve this, Hyundai Motor Group will pursue strategic cooperation that combines the group's strengths in manufacturing, mobility and robotics with the AI technology, software and algorithm capabilities of global big tech firms such as Nvidia, Waymo and Google DeepMind.

"Based on cooperation with the global innovation ecosystem, we will leap forward as a company that leads the physical AI era beyond future mobility, and we will continuously create new value to contribute to humanity and future society," a Hyundai Motor Group official said.