Qualcomm Agrees to Buy PickNik After Unveiling Robotics Platform Capable of 700 Trillion Operations
Key Facts
Qualcomm has reached an agreement to buy robotics software company PickNik, according to a Dow Jones report published on 23 September 2026, in a move aimed at strengthening integration between robot control software and its computing platforms. PickNik founder Dave Coleman links the rationale for the deal to the need to run artificial intelligence models within a robot's available power budget. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, according to Dow Jones. Coleman founded PickNik in 2015, and its products include MoveIt Pro, which is used in industrial and service applications. Qualcomm plans to integrate the company's technologies more closely with its Dragonwing robotics platforms. This includes motion planning, manipulation, perception and kinematics software, according to Qualcomm's announcement of the agreement.
Addressing continued software availability for developers, Coleman confirmed in PickNik's announcement that MoveIt 1 and MoveIt 2 would remain open source under the existing license. He said "MoveIt remains hardware-platform agnostic," affirming that it would remain usable without being tied to any particular company's hardware. For its commercial product, PickNik says MoveIt Pro detects the computing accelerators available on the device on which it runs. Supported hardware includes Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm accelerators, as well as accelerators embedded in the device. PickNik's products thus combine open-source releases with a commercial platform supporting hardware from multiple vendors. These assurances accompany the agreement for Qualcomm to acquire the company and the planned integration with its robotics platforms.
The MoveIt Pro commercial platform includes real-time libraries embedded in the robot when it is deployed, according to PickNik's product description. Its operational features include Docker container environments and commercial service-level agreements. It also provides error-recovery strategies, according to the company's comparison of MoveIt and MoveIt Pro. In release notes dated 1 September 2026, PickNik announced the software's ability to execute a learned policy as continuous robot motion. That motion is subject to collision checking, according to the release notes, which preceded the acquisition agreement announcement. The platform thus combines software running on the robot with tools for executing learned motion, alongside arrangements for commercial support and handling errors during operation.
MoveIt Pro updates include expanded scanning and planning tools, as well as improved tools for mask filtering using machine learning, according to PickNik's statement on the software update. Commercial applications include Autowash's use of the software to automate vehicle washing while accounting for the shape of vehicle surfaces. In industry, BMW uses the software to make robots on assembly lines more intelligent, according to NASA. Development of the software that became MoveIt Pro traces back to funding from NASA's Small Business Innovation Research program and the U.S. Space Force. NASA's account of the software links that funding to its subsequent corporate applications, including BMW's assembly lines. The uses cited by NASA and PickNik range from industrial assembly to vehicle washing, employing the software's tools to handle motion and surfaces.
The PickNik agreement follows Qualcomm's expansion into developer tools through Arduino, with the company announcing an agreement to acquire it on 7 October 2025. On 31 October 2025, Arduino confirmed it had joined the Qualcomm group, saying: "It's official, Arduino is part of the Qualcomm family." That deal was part of Qualcomm's expansion into development tools and edge computing, according to its announcement. After joining, Arduino reported that worldwide shipments of its UNO Q board had exceeded 270000 units. That figure reflects cumulative shipments through 29 September 2026, according to the company. This background places the PickNik agreement alongside Qualcomm's earlier acquisition of a developer tools company, while the latest agreement adds software specializing in robot operation and motion control.
On robotics platform development, Qualcomm said in an announcement dated 5 January 2026 that it was working with Figure to define the next generation of computing architecture. It then unveiled a reference design for its Dragonwing robotics platform on 1 June 2026. It said the design targeted AI performance of up to 700 trillion operations per second. As the next step following the PickNik agreement announced in September, the company plans to integrate MoveIt and MoveIt Pro more closely with Dragonwing platforms. The plans also include PickNik's future technologies, according to Qualcomm's announcement. Through this integration, the company aims to improve support for motion planning, manipulation, perception and kinematics capabilities, the functions it identified in outlining the path for technical collaboration after the agreement.