Hyundai Motor Group is acquiring SoftBank Group's remaining 9.65% stake in Boston Dynamics for $325 million, securing full ownership of the robotics company it first invested in five years ago.

Reuters reported the deal on June 19, 2026. Once complete, Hyundai will own 100% of Boston Dynamics, erasing SoftBank's last financial claim in the robotics firm it once wholly owned.

Hyundai Motor Group first acquired a controlling stake in Boston Dynamics from SoftBank in December 2020, completing the $1.1 billion transaction in June 2021. SoftBank kept a minority position then. The $325 million price for this final 9.65% stake suggests Boston Dynamics is now valued at roughly $3.4 billion — a substantial increase from the 2020 valuation, though Hyundai has not officially revalued the company.

The timing matters. In January 2026, Hyundai unveiled a production-ready version of the Atlas humanoid robot at CES and announced plans to deploy it at a US manufacturing facility by 2028, according to Reuters. The public display signalled that Hyundai now treats Boston Dynamics not as a research lab but as a working part of its industrial operations.

Leadership changes reinforce this shift. Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter stepped down in February 2026, with the departure framed as bringing the company into tighter alignment with Hyundai's robotics strategy. Playter had led Atlas development for over a decade. His exit and the full buyout are connected: full ownership removes the friction of negotiating with an outside shareholder, giving Hyundai clean authority over strategy, spending, and how fast Boston Dynamics integrates with the broader company.

Hyundai's long-stated aim has been to weave Boston Dynamics into a wider portfolio spanning autonomous vehicles, logistics automation, and urban air mobility. A wholly owned subsidiary is far simpler to integrate at the engineering and operational level than one with a minority shareholder whose interests might differ.

For the humanoid robot sector broadly, this move is significant. Hyundai now has unambiguous control of one of the most technically mature bipedal platforms just as the sector is drawing intense capital and competition from Tesla's Optimus programme, Figure AI, Agility Robotics, and well-funded Chinese competitors. Full ownership allows Hyundai to push the Atlas roadmap forward without delays caused by board-level disagreements over pace.

The price tag warrants a closer look. At $325 million for roughly 10%, Boston Dynamics appears valued at nearly triple what Hyundai paid for its controlling interest in 2020-21. That gap could stem from genuine business progress — the CES reveal, the 2028 factory timeline, rising valuations across the humanoid space — or SoftBank extracting a premium from a buyer with little choice but to pay. Likely both factors apply. The 2028 factory deployment will be the first real test of whether that valuation holds up in practice.

For SoftBank, this exit closes a chapter that began with its 2017 acquisition of Boston Dynamics from Google's parent company Alphabet. SoftBank's robotics record has been mixed — its SoftBank Robotics division failed to scale the Pepper social robot into a commercial success — and selling out Boston Dynamics entirely frees capital for other bets as the company tilts toward AI infrastructure investments.

The ownership question is now settled. Boston Dynamics belongs entirely to Hyundai. Whether Atlas can achieve the manufacturing costs that industrial customers actually demand is Hyundai's problem to solve.