- Hyundai is acquiring SoftBank’s remaining 9.65% stake in Boston Dynamics, giving the automaker full ownership of one of the world’s best-known robotics companies.
- The move is designed to accelerate Hyundai’s Physical AI strategy, combining Boston Dynamics’ robotics expertise with Hyundai’s manufacturing scale and AI capabilities.
- Hyundai plans to deploy Atlas humanoid robots at its Georgia EV plant from 2028, with annual production capacity targeted at 30,000 robots.
Five years after selling control of Boston Dynamics, SoftBank is exiting entirely. Hyundai Motor Group has agreed to acquire SoftBank’s remaining 9.65% stake in the robotics company for an estimated $325 million, exercising a put option agreed when Hyundai first bought an 80% stake in 2021. The transaction gives Hyundai full ownership of the company behind Atlas, one of the world’s most advanced humanoid robots, and Spot, its quadruped inspection robot.
The implied valuation exceeds $3 billion, nearly three times what Hyundai paid for Boston Dynamics in 2021. Yet the transaction is less about valuation than strategy.
For Hyundai, full ownership removes governance constraints as Atlas moves from research into commercial manufacturing. For SoftBank, selling its final minority stake reflects a broader shift away from owning individual robotics companies towards building AI and automation infrastructure at scale.
The robotics race is no longer just about building humanoids
Humanoid robots have become one of AI’s hottest investment themes. But building capable robots is only the first challenge. Deploying them safely, reliably and economically inside real factories remains far harder.
Hyundai believes ownership matters because it already controls the manufacturing environment where Atlas will be tested. Beginning in 2028, production versions of Atlas are scheduled to start work at Hyundai’s electric vehicle plant in Georgia, initially handling logistics and heavy lifting before progressing to welding and component assembly by 2030.
The company ultimately aims to manufacture 30,000 humanoid robots annually, deploying more than 25,000 across Hyundai and Kia factories while selling the remainder commercially.
Unlike many robotics startups searching for customers, Hyundai already owns the factories where its robots will learn.
The biggest money is moving towards Physical AI infrastructure
SoftBank’s exit does not signal reduced conviction in robotics. Instead, it highlights where some of the industry’s largest investors believe the next value will be created.
The Japanese investment giant is reportedly preparing Roze AI, a new publicly listed company that combines robotics, AI infrastructure and data centre assets following acquisitions, including ABB Robotics. Rather than backing a single hardware platform, SoftBank is assembling an industrial AI ecosystem spanning robotics, compute and automation.
The shift mirrors a broader trend across Physical AI.
According to Grand View Research, the global industrial robotics market was valued at approximately $33.9 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $60.6 billion by 2030, driven by AI, labour shortages and increasing factory automation. As robotics becomes commercially viable, competitive advantage is shifting beyond hardware towards deployment platforms, AI models and industrial infrastructure that allow robots to operate reliably at scale.
The race is moving from prototypes to production
Hyundai enters an increasingly competitive Physical AI market. Figure AI, valued at around $39.5 billion, is targeting mass production of humanoid robots for manufacturing. Skild AI recently raised $1.4 billion to build foundation models capable of powering multiple robot types, while Walden Robotics emerged from stealth with $300 million to deploy general-purpose robots across industrial environments. In Europe, microagi secured $55 million to build deployment software that helps manufacturers integrate robots into real production environments, while NEURA Robotics raised $1.4 billion to expand its humanoid robotics platform.
Yet Hyundai occupies a unique position.
Unlike most competitors, it controls the robots, the AI and the factories where those systems will be deployed. That gives the company the ability to validate performance using real manufacturing data rather than pilot projects alone.
Where smart robotics money is going
The Boston Dynamics transaction isn’t simply the end of SoftBank’s investment. It illustrates how the Physical AI market is beginning to split into two distinct investment strategies.
One camp, led by Hyundai, is betting that owning robots and deploying them inside large manufacturing networks will create the strongest competitive advantage. The other, represented by SoftBank’s emerging AI strategy, is betting that the greater long-term value lies in owning the infrastructure that powers every robot rather than the robots themselves.
As humanoid robots move from demonstrations to factory floors, investors are increasingly asking a different question. The future may not belong to the company that builds the smartest robot, but to the one that controls the platform every intelligent robot depends on.
