Cooperation between Hyundai Motor Group and Samsung Group is expanding across the board. What began in batteries and semiconductors is spreading quickly into robots, software-defined vehicles (SDVs) and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms, shifting the two groups' relationship from competition toward symbiosis.
The symbolic result is the Genesis GV90, a large electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) set to launch in the third quarter of this year. The GV90 will be equipped with prismatic batteries from Samsung SDI (006400.KS). Hyundai Motor has fitted its flagship model — which brings together more than 20 years of electrification technology — with batteries from Samsung SDI, the last of Korea's three major battery makers with which it partnered.
Batteries are a core component that accounts for 30% to 40% of an electric vehicle's cost. In internal-combustion terms, they are the equivalent of the engine. Entrusting this central role to Samsung SDI shows that cooperation between the two companies has moved up a level, industry observers say.
Hyundai Motor and Kia (000270.KS) had mainly worked with LG Energy Solution (373220.KS) and SK On. They signed their first battery supply contract with Samsung SDI in 2023. But the pace and scope of the cooperation have proved faster and broader than expected. After Hyundai's Ioniq 3 and Kia's EV2 — the key volume models for this year's push into the European market — the top-of-the-line GV90 has also chosen Samsung SDI batteries.
Hyundai Motor and Kia have preferred pouch-type batteries, but they are said to have rated highly the energy density and safety of the prismatic batteries produced by Samsung SDI. Samsung SDI raised output using a high-nickel NCA (nickel, cobalt, aluminum) cathode with a nickel content of 91% or more, and solved the swelling problem that has long plagued prismatic batteries by using an anode combining silicon refined to the nanoscale.
If batteries are the starting point of the cooperation, semiconductors are the area that shows its depth. Hyundai Motor and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) signed a supply agreement in 2023 for the Exynos Auto V920, a chip for infotainment. The Exynos Auto V920 carries a high-performance graphics processing unit (GPU) and low-power memory, allowing it to control six displays and 12 camera sensors at once and to support driver-monitoring functions. Samsung Electronics' foundry, its contract chip-manufacturing arm, is said to have won an order last October to produce an 8-nanometer (nm, one-billionth of a meter) self-driving chip that Hyundai Motor is developing in-house. Hyundai aims to complete chip development in 2028 and begin mass production in 2030. The two companies are also said to be cooperating on embedded magnetic memory (eMRAM), a next-generation automotive semiconductor.
Cooperation is also taking shape in software. Hyundai Motor, Kia and Samsung Electronics are jointly expanding "Car-to-Home," which controls home appliances from the vehicle, and "Home-to-Car," which remotely operates the vehicle from home, through the IoT platform SmartThings.
Robots are the area where the two companies' collaboration is most active. Samsung SDI and Hyundai Motor and Kia are jointly developing high-performance batteries not only for vehicles but also dedicated to robots. Hyundai and Kia's Robotics Lab is responsible for evaluating the newly developed battery's use in robots and improving its performance, while Samsung SDI handles the development of high-capacity materials. There is also the possibility that Samsung SDI batteries will go into Atlas, the humanoid that Boston Dynamics — Hyundai Motor Group's robotics subsidiary — is preparing to mass-produce. Samsung Electro-Mechanics (009150.KS) is also aiming to supply the camera modules that will serve as Atlas' eyes, and plans to begin initial mass production of high-resolution, high-pixel sensing modules for humanoids in the third quarter.
In addition, Rainbow Robotics, Samsung Electronics' robotics subsidiary, and Hyundai Rotem (064350.KS), Hyundai Motor Group's defense affiliate, are pursuing a plan to supply the Army with a jointly developed multi-legged walking robot for counterterrorism operations. Under the division of labor, Rainbow Robotics handles the robot platform and Hyundai Rotem is responsible for modifying the weapons system.
Many analysts say the personal trust between Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chairman Euisun Chung underlies the two groups' decision to join hands. The two groups vied for the top spot in the business world through the eras of first-generation founders Lee Byung-chull of Samsung and Chung Ju-yung of Hyundai, and second-generation leaders — the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee and Hyundai Motor Group Honorary Chairman Chung Mong-koo. In the third generation, they have begun to emphasize responding to global challenges over domestic competition. The judgment appears to be that, in navigating geopolitical waves such as the U.S.-China contest for supremacy and the reshaping of supply chains, cooperation among Korean companies is more efficient than competition between them.
