The humanoid robot ‘Atlas’ from Boston Dynamics, the robotics affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group, delivered the official match ball on the FIFA World Cup stage in a special performance. This is the world’s first World Cup halftime event (the break between the first and second halves of the match) featuring a robot.

Hyundai Motor Company announced that on 6 July (local time), during the round of 16 match between Brazil and Norway at the 2026 FIFA World Cup North and Central America held at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, Atlas performed a ball delivery to the referee. Hyundai Motor is an official partner sponsoring this World Cup.

Atlas appeared from the players’ entrance tunnel just before the end of halftime. Immediately upon entering, Atlas showcased a series of signature goal celebrations of internationally renowned football players, from Son Heung-min to Brazil’s Matheus Cunha and Norway’s Erling Haaland. It then bowed and handed the ball to the referee with one hand, signaling the start of the second half.


These movements were made possible by Atlas’s unique whole-body control technology, in which all joints respond as a single integrated system. Alberto Rodriguez, head of behavioral policy for Atlas at Boston Dynamics, explained, “The performance Atlas presented this time was realized based on artificial intelligence (AI) learning technologies that are applied in actual industrial sites.”

The Atlas showcased at this event is the development model that was exhibited in January this year at CES 2026, the world’s largest information technology (IT) and home appliance exhibition. This is the first time it has demonstrated its movements in front of a live audience. Ji Sung-won, Vice President and Head of Brand Marketing Division at Hyundai Motor Company, said, “We prepared this performance to show on the World Cup stage, watched by football fans around the globe, that the future is not something imagined but something that has already begun.”

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