Which company announced in January 2026 that DeepMind would help make its Atlas humanoid robot smarter with Gemini Robotics foundation models?

In January 2026, Boston Dynamics announced that Google DeepMind would be collaborating to enhance its Atlas humanoid robot with Gemini Robotics foundation (Review) models. This significant partnership, unveiled at CES 2026, aims to integrate cutting-edge artificial intelligence into the Atlas robot, enabling it to become more intelligent and adaptable for various industrial applications.

The collaboration brings together Boston Dynamics' renowned expertise in creating physically capable and agile robots with Google DeepMind's advanced AI research, particularly its multimodal Gemini foundation models designed for robotics. These Gemini Robotics models are built to allow robots to perceive their surroundings, understand complex instructions, reason about actions, and interact more effectively with humans and tools. By combining the "athletic intelligence" of Atlas with these foundational AI capabilities, the goal is to bridge the gap between mechanical excellence and deep intelligence in humanoid robots.

This strategic alliance is expected to accelerate the development of next-generation humanoid robots capable of performing a wide array of industrial tasks, beginning with the automotive sector. The partnership will focus on developing new visual-language-action models tailored for the physical complexity of humanoid robots, allowing Atlas to learn new tasks quickly, adapt to dynamic environments, and work autonomously with minimal supervision. Initial deployments of the redesigned Atlas robots are scheduled for 2026, with fleets heading to facilities such as Hyundai's Robotics Metaplant Application Center and Google DeepMind.