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'Chimaek,' round two? Hyundai chief pitches additional collabs with Samsung, Nvidia at CES.

Published: 07 Jan. 2026, 16:18 Updated: 07 Jan. 2026, 18:08

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung visits Samsung Electronics' exhibition at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas on Jan. 6, during CES 2026. [YI WOO-LIM]

LAS VEGAS — Chicken and beer last year apparently wasn't enough for Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung. The auto conglomerate head was busy pitching new collaboration ideas with leaders at Samsung Electronics and Nvidia as the company pushes forward in robotics, AI and autonomous driving.

On the opening day of the world’s largest consumer electronics show held in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Chung visited the Samsung Electronics exhibition at the Wynn Hotel, where he suggested a collaboration involving Hyundai’s MobED platform — a next-generation autonomous mobility robot — and Samsung’s new robotic vacuum.

While watching the 2026 model Bespoke AI Steam vacuum lift a 10-kilogram (22-pound) dumbbell using suction alone, Chung turned to Samsung executives including company President Roh Tae-moon and said, “What if we attach four of these and combine them with MobED? It could stay upright, go anywhere, and offer better control and suction. How about a collaboration?”

MobED, short for Mobile Eccentric Droid, is a four-wheeled platform designed to stay level even on slopes or uneven terrain. It measures 74 centimeters (28.7 inches) wide and 115 centimeters long, and is being developed for logistics and delivery use. Observers speculated that Chung, who has been deeply involved in the platform’s commercialization, may be envisioning an industrial or outdoor cleaning robot based on MobED — or exploring ways to apply vacuum-based adhesion to enhance the robot’s stability.

MobED (Mobile Eccentric Droid), a four-wheeled platform designed by Hyundai Motor to stay level even on slopes or uneven terrain [KIM HYO-SEONG]

Chung also showed interest in Samsung’s 2026 Bespoke AI Family Hub refrigerator. When a staff member demonstrated a voice-activated door closing feature, Chung exclaimed, “Great!” He was particularly intrigued by the display that tracks food expiration dates and asked, “Is that automatically input when the food goes in?” Samsung Electronics President Lee Won-jin explained that the refrigerator automatically recognizes food items and their expiration dates once placed inside.

Later on Tuesday afternoon, Chung held a 30-minute meeting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, just three months after the two met with Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong in Seoul. With Hyundai emphasizing AI integration in its latest New Year’s message, the discussion reportedly centered on physical AI and autonomous driving technologies.

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung visits Samsung Electronics' exhibition at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas on Jan. 6, during CES 2026. [YI WOO-LIM]

Ahead of the meeting, Chung received a detailed briefing on Nvidia’s Alpamayo platform, the company’s first full-stack autonomous driving solution. Built on a vision-language-action (VLA) model, Alpamayo is being positioned as a next-generation system that surpasses Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD). Some industry watchers believe Chung could be exploring Alpamayo as a strategic leap forward in Hyundai’s push to close the gap with Tesla.

Chung also spoke with Madison Huang, Nvidia’s senior director of product marketing and the daughter of the CEO.

Before visiting Samsung, Chung toured the Hyundai Motor Group, Qualcomm and LG Electronics booths at the Las Vegas Convention Center, underscoring Hyundai’s increasingly active cross-industry engagement strategy during this year’s CES.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY YI WOO-LIM [[email protected]]