Qualcomm to Acquire PickNik, Keeping MoveIt Open Source and Strengthening Physical AI Push

On September 23, Qualcomm announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire PickNik, a robotics software company, with the transaction subject to customary closing conditions. PickNik is the long-time maintainer of MoveIt, an open-source robot manipulation framework built on the Robot Operating System (ROS), widely used in industrial automation, service robotics, and physical AI.

Qualcomm said MoveIt will remain open source after the acquisition and will continue to support third-party hardware platforms, while integration with Qualcomm's Dragonwing robotics platform will be deepened. The companies also plan to combine MoveIt with the Arduino VENTUNO Q development board to lower the barrier to robot development.