Boston Dynamics turns to Google DeepMind to power its humanoid robots

Boston Dynamics has announced a strategic partnership with Google DeepMind to enhance the AI capabilities of its next-generation humanoid robots, specifically the Atlas® model. Unveiled at CES 2026, this collaboration aims to integrate Google DeepMind’s Gemini Robotics AI foundation models with Boston Dynamics’ robots to enable them to perform a wide range of industrial tasks, starting with the automotive sector. The joint research, set to begin soon, will focus on developing AI systems that can control complex humanoid robots safely and efficiently, emphasizing autonomy, adaptability, and reliability in high-impact applications. The partnership marks a significant step in combining advanced robotics hardware with large-scale multimodal AI models that handle perception, reasoning, and decision-making in real-world environments. Boston Dynamics sees this collaboration as essential to building the world’s most capable humanoid robots by establishing new visual-language-action models. Both companies view this convergence of robotics and AI as transformative for the manufacturing industry and beyond, aiming to redefine industry paradigms and enable robots to scale