Overview
- Hyundai disclosed Thursday that it will acquire SoftBank’s remaining roughly 9.65–10% stake in Boston Dynamics after SoftBank exercised a put option, bringing the robotics firm under full Hyundai control.
- Company officials did not publish the purchase price, but multiple media outlets estimate the transaction at about 500 billion won (roughly $325–$335 million), a step that implies a much higher implied valuation than when Hyundai bought its initial controlling stake in 2021.
- Hyundai and Boston Dynamics plan to start using the Atlas humanoid at the Metaplant America facility in Georgia in 2028 for parts sequencing and to expand Atlas to component assembly by 2030, while targeting internal production capacity of about 30,000 robots per year and deployment of about 25,000 across Hyundai and Kia plants.
- South Korean union leaders have responded with rolling partial strikes in Ulsan and announced longer walkouts over wage and job-security talks, demanding pre-deployment protections such as switching hourly workers to fixed salaries, higher retirement age, and bigger bonuses.
- Full ownership removes minority-share constraints and could speed strategic decisions such as an eventual IPO or limits on external sales, but experts flag technical, cost and labor risks that will determine whether humanoid robots can reliably replace or supplement human tasks on assembly lines.