High mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) are binary systems formed by a compact object, either a black hole (BH) or a neutron star (NS), which accretes matter from a high-mass stellar companion. After the detection of gravitational waves originated in compact object mergers, HMXBs have gained new attraction as they are thought to be part of their progenitors.
In this sense, it is remarkable that in the long road from massive stellar binaries to compact-object mergers, several still uncertain processes are found. In particular, the strength of supernovae natal kicks.

Recently, the second GAIA Data Release was published, containing 1.7 billion stars for which for about 76% of them, a 5D astrometric solution was obtained, including position, parallax and proper motion. After building an up-to-date list of Galactic HMXBs, we cross-matched it with GAIA data, finding many ounterparts with a very good astrometric solution, previously unknown in most cases. We used this information to study their velocities and we found that a significant fraction of the HMXB population shows a high peculiar velocity, incompatible with Galactic rotation. We interpret this as an indication of a strong kick, experienced during the formation of the compact object in these systems. We then compare the distribution of peculiar velocities of the sample with simulations of systemic velocities of HMXBs for different natal kicks and we discuss our results with those coming from the pulsar population and low-mass X-ray binaries.