Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics
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Hyundai pays $325 million to acquire full ownership of Boston Dynamics from SoftBank.
Hyundai Motor Group will approve the purchase of SoftBank's remaining 9.65% stake in Boston Dynamics for $325 million, making BD a wholly owned subsidiary. Hyundai previously paid $880 million for an 80% stake in 2021, valuing BD at $1.1 billion. Atlas, the humanoid robot, is expected to begin work at Hyundai's electric vehicle plant near Savannah, Georgia by 2028. Hyundai's supply chain arm, Mobis, produces actuators for Atlas. Meanwhile, SoftBank is forming Roze AI, a new venture focused on AI infrastructure including data centers.
What commenters are saying
Commenters note this is just Hyundai buying the remaining stake, not a new acquisition. Several criticize Hyundai's reliability track record with engines, though some praise its EV lineup, especially the Ioniq 5N. Others debate whether humanoid robots are practical vs. purpose-built factory robots, with supporters arguing humanoids can flexibly replace any human worker. A thread discusses whether Google's sale of BD to SoftBank in 2017 was a mistake, noting BD's idiosyncratic hydraulic focus and Google's impatience for productization. Some commenters complain the article uses an AI-generated image and reads LLM-generated.