Hyundai moves to own Boston Dynamics outright

Hyundai is moving to buy SoftBank’s remaining 9.9% stake in Boston Dynamics, a deal Bloomberg says is worth about $325 million. If it goes through, the Korean automaker would take full control of the robotics company after buying 80% of it in 2020.

This is less about tidying up ownership than speeding up a commercial push for Atlas, Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot. According to Bloomberg, Hyundai is reviewing contractual rights and obligations before taking the final stake. Once completed, Boston Dynamics would no longer have an outside co-owner.

In comments to Bloomberg, Hyundai framed the goal as building a complete AI robotics chain, from technology development and validation to commercialization. In practice, that means tighter integration between Hyundai factories, partner software platforms, and Boston Dynamics robots intended to work on production lines rather than in staged demos.

Atlas production plans for Georgia

At the center of the strategy is Atlas. Earlier this year, Boston Dynamics showed a version at CES that it described as production-ready. Before that, Atlas was best known for years of test clips and viral videos featuring dancing, jumping, and acrobatics. It later appeared in a more practical public demo at a FIFA World Cup match, walking through the players' tunnel and handing the ball to the referee.

Hyundai is developing the project with NVIDIA and Google DeepMind. The division of labor is straightforward: computing from one side, control and perception models from another, and real industrial deployment from Hyundai.

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The timeline is unusually specific:

• Initial tasks: logistics and welding
• First site: Hyundai’s factory in Georgia, US
• Target launch: 2028
• Long-term goal: up to 30,000 humanoid robots a year
• Next step: more complex assembly by 2030

Boston Dynamics expects Atlas to start with narrow, repeatable jobs before moving into more complex manufacturing processes and component assembly by 2030.

That approach matches the broader market. Tesla is pushing Optimus for use in its own plants, Figure AI is already testing humanoids at BMW sites, and Agility Robotics is building Digit production in the US. Goldman Sachs estimates the global humanoid robot market could reach $38 billion by 2035 — a much larger forecast than the industry was making just a few years ago. For Hyundai, full ownership of Boston Dynamics looks like a bid to lock in a position early in one of manufacturing’s most expensive emerging races.