The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Katrina Hamlin

HONG KONG, March 4 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Robots are hard at work for Hyundai Motor Co 005380.KS. Although cars generate the profit, its Boston Dynamics unit is more responsible for the sudden rise in market capitalisation. As investors increasingly value technological hardware as much as software, more companies across Asia will be rewarded.

The Hyundai conglomerate's automotive shares have roughly doubled this year, compared to a 40% rise in the domestic benchmark index. Vehicles, including its Tucson SUV, power the bottom line. Hyundai Motor Co is on track for $9 billion of net profit next year, according to Visible Alpha. A basket of international peers trades at about 7.5 times earnings on average, which would impute roughly $70 billion of equity value.

There's also a stake in sister carmaker Kia 000270.KS, worth $16 billion, and $17 billion of book value from investments in other related companies, as of September. Korea Investment analysts appraise the financing division at $15 billion. Add it all up, slap on a 40% conglomerate discount, and the company is worth about $70 billion.

Hyundai Motor Co's market value is now closer to $100 billion, however. Its rally began in January after Boston Dynamics showcased the Atlas humanoid cyborg at the annual consumer tech expo in Las Vegas and unveiled plans for mass production. Every scrap of related news since has stoked further excitement: the stock leapt 11% on Friday after Seoul said the Hyundai group would invest some $6 billion in an artificial intelligence data centre and robot factory.

It’s more than just hype. Hyundai is well-positioned to sell autonomous machines like its four-legged Spot, wheeled Mobed and biped Atlas. The group's decision to buy an 80% stake in Boston Dynamics from SoftBank in 2021 accelerated a multi-decade push into the technology; Hyundai Motor Co owns a roughly 28% indirect holding. The parent’s broad portfolio also manufactures everything from ships to space exploration vehicles, enabling it to experiment and gather data for industrial applications. Essential components are also available internally.

China’s homegrown champions, such as Unitree, present formidable competition, but Hyundai is better positioned to tap the lucrative U.S. market, where higher labour costs make a compelling case for automating production. It's already introducing Atlas to production lines in Georgia.

This dynamic will ripple across South Korea and Japan, where building a range of precision machines and components is a speciality largely overlooked while investors favoured coding experts selling subscriptions. Rainbow Robotics and gear-maker Nabtesco are among those picking up steam. It augurs yet more promise for rebooted hardware.

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CONTEXT NEWS

Hyundai Motor Group and the South Korean government signed a deal on February 27 to invest about 9 trillion won ($6.3 billion) to build an artificial intelligence data centre, a robot manufacturing factory and other developments in the country, the land ministry said.

Shares in Hyundai Motor Co, part of the Hyundai Motor Group, gained 11% on the day. They have risen 99% to 595,000 won as of market close on March 3 from the beginning of 2026.

Hyundai Motor Co holds a 27.9% indirect stake in Boston Dynamics through its interest in HMG Global, which is the largest single shareholder of the robotics company following its 2021 acquisition from SoftBank.

(Editing by Jeffrey Goldfarb; Production by Ujjaini Dutta)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on HAMLIN/katrina.hamlin@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: katrina.hamlin.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))