Photo: Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons (cropped) (source)
Qualcomm Technologies said Wednesday, Sept. 23, that it has agreed to acquire PickNik Inc., the Boulder, Colorado, company that maintains MoveIt, a widely adopted open-source software framework for planning and controlling the motion of robot arms.
Qualcomm said in its announcement that MoveIt will remain open-source and will be integrated more closely with its Dragonwing robotics platforms, giving developers a more direct path from AI models, including vision-language and vision-language-action models, to motion planning, manipulation and real-time control. The announcement did not include financial terms. The deal is subject to customary closing conditions.
"Robotics is one of the most exciting frontiers of physical AI, and software is the connective tissue that turns great hardware into great robots," said Nakul Duggal, the Qualcomm executive who oversees its automotive, industrial, embedded IoT and robotics businesses.
Open-source commitments
Qualcomm plans to keep MoveIt 1 and MoveIt 2 open-source under their existing license, with community-driven roadmaps, and to keep supporting the software on other companies' hardware, The Robot Report reported. "MoveIt's hardware-agnostic design is a key enabler of innovation," the company said. Both companies are founding members of the Open Source Robotics Alliance, and Qualcomm said it will keep backing projects such as Space ROS.
PickNik founder and chief product officer Dave Coleman said joining Qualcomm would let the company "expand investment in MoveIt as a leading AI training platform for robotics" while preserving its openness. PickNik CEO Dave Grant said MoveIt is "entering an exciting new chapter."
Background
PickNik was founded in 2015, competed in the Amazon Picking Challenge and signed Google as its first customer, according to The Robot Report. MoveIt began within the Robot Operating System project at Willow Garage. The company renamed its commercial product MoveIt Pro in 2024, and this year partnered with Motiv Space Systems on software for NASA's Fly Foundational Robotics mission.
The deal extends a run of robotics moves by Qualcomm, which acquired open-source hardware maker Arduino in October 2025 and joined the MassRobotics startup hub in April. The first integration will pair MoveIt with Arduino VENTUNO Q boards, the outlet reported.
What's next
Qualcomm did not give an expected closing date, and the announcement did not say what will happen to PickNik's commercial MoveIt Pro product.
Sources
- Qualcomm (release via RoboticsTomorrow): Qualcomm to Acquire PickNik to Advance the Future of Open Robotics and Physical AI (2026-09-23)
- The Robot Report: Qualcomm to acquire PickNik Robotics and keep MoveIt open-source (2026-09-23)
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Added to the Motion Media archive on Sep. 28, 2026.
