Boston Dynamics

Boston Dynamics, Inc., founded in 1992 and headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, is a world-renowned engineering and robotics design company. Founded as a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by Marc Raibert, the company develops highly dynamic, mobile robots with exceptional agility and balance. Boston Dynamics is best known for its humanoid robot Atlas, its quadruped robot Spot (the company's first commercial product released in 2019), and the pioneering BigDog project funded by DARPA. The original Atlas (2013-2024) was a hydraulically actuated humanoid developed with DARPA funding. In April 2024, the hydraulic Atlas was retired and replaced by a new fully electric Atlas (Atlas Gen 3), a commercially focused industrial humanoid with 56 degrees of freedom. The company has been acquired three times: by Google X (2013-2017), SoftBank Group (2017-2020), and Hyundai Motor Group (2020-present), which acquired an 80% stake for approximately $880 million. As part of Hyundai, Boston Dynamics is commercializing Atlas for industrial material handling applications, leveraging Hyundai's manufacturing expertise. In 2024, the new all-electric Atlas was revealed — a 1.9 m tall, 90 kg humanoid with 56 DoF, 50 kg instant payload capacity, IP67 rating, and a wide operating temperature range of -20°C to 40°C. Atlas is designed to autonomously navigate to charging stations and swap its own battery. Employees number approximately 1,000. Robert Playter served as CEO from 2019 until his retirement in February 2026, when CFO Amanda McMaster was named Interim CEO.