Hyundai partners with Nvidia on AI, autonomous driving and digital twins

The Korean carmaker Hyundai is entering into a collaboration with US technology group Nvidia, which has long since become far more than just a chip manufacturer. The two partners aim to jointly advance innovation in autonomous vehicles (AVs), intelligent factories, and robotics.

Nvidia ai training at scale ari — Image: Nvidia

Only a few days ago, Nvidia announced a partnership with ride-hailing app Uber, carmaker Stellantis, and contract manufacturer Foxconn in the field of robotaxis. Nvidia also revealed that Mercedes-Benz and Lucid plan to build luxury vehicles with Level 4 autonomy using Nvidia’s technology.

Now comes the next announcement from what is currently the world’s most valuable company, this time alongside another major automaker. Together, the two companies will develop AI capabilities for mobility solutions, next-generation smart factories, and semiconductor advances to strengthen the Hyundai Motor Group’s future technologies.

Part of an AI cluster in South Korea

The collaboration will be supported by the South Korean government and will form part of a national AI cluster. This initiative is expected to lead to an investment of around 3 billion US dollars to advance South Korea’s AI landscape. The AI cluster will include a Physical AI Application Centre operated by Hyundai Motor Group, an Nvidia AI Technology Centre, and AI data centres in the region.

“Korea has a strong foundation in manufacturing. By combining Korea’s rich manufacturing data with NVIDIA’s cutting-edge AI infrastructure, we expect to build a Win-Win model through collaboration with domestic companies, thereby accelerating innovative AI transformation (AX) in manufacturing across industries,” said Bae Kyung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT of the Republic of Korea.

“AI will revolutionize every facet of every industry. In transportation alone – from vehicle design and manufacturing to robotics and autonomous driving – NVIDIA’s AI and computing platforms are transforming how the world moves,” said Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of Nvidia. “Together with Hyundai Motor Group – Korea’s industrial powerhouse and one of the world’s top mobility solutions providers – we’re building intelligent cars and factories that will shape the future of the multitrillion-dollar mobility industry.”

AI factory planned

As part of the collaboration, Hyundai will establish an “AI factory” based on 50,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs. This is not a physical manufacturing plant, but rather a specialised computing infrastructure designed to generate value from data by managing the entire AI lifecycle – from data collection through training and fine-tuning to large-scale AI inference. Nvidia refers to this AI infrastructure as an “AI factory.” Technologies such as Nvidia Drive AGX Thor, DGX, Omniverse, and Cosmos will be used.

By using Nvidia technologies, Hyundai intends to develop digital factory twins to advance robot integration and optimise production. Elsewhere, digital twins of regional driving environments and conditions will be created, incorporating extensive simulation data to accelerate the development of autonomous driving systems.

Inside the vehicle, Nvidia’s Drive AGX Thor – an accelerated computer running the safety-certified DriveOS operating system – will provide AI computing power for next-generation advanced driver assistance and safety systems, as well as immersive AI experiences for occupants.

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This article was first published by Florian Treiß for electrive’s German edition.