In a nutshell: On the original time, Boston Dynamics fell beneath contemporary management as Hyundai closed a tackle SoftBank to exhaust an 80-p.c controlling stake within the robotics firm. The firm will continue making and leasing robots, but Hyundai plans to develop its reach and leverage its skills in other endeavors.
Korean automobile manufacturer Hyundai announced that it had closed a deal to secure controlling inventory in US robot maker Boston Dynamics. The firm, famous for its Space quadruped robot, used to be wholly owned by SoftBank. Hyundai entered into negotiations with the keeping firm in November 2020.
By December, Hyundai had agreed to an 80-p.c controlling stake in Boston Dynamics valued at $1.1 billion—an $880 million deal. A SoftBank affiliate will steal the relaxation 20 p.c. On Monday, Hyundai accomplished the transaction and now has reliable steal a watch on over the robot maker.
On the original time, we formally become piece of the Hyundai Motor Community household. Collectively, we can make the model forward for mobile robotics. https://t.co/wSwpbKNJoW pic.twitter.com/AeJk5siwsq
— Boston Dynamics (@BostonDynamics) June 21, 2021
This acquisition marks the third time Boston Dynamics has modified fingers. Google’s father or mother firm Alphabet used to be the major to existing hobby within the MIT-make firm, buying it for a reported $500 million in 2013. Eastern tech keeping firm SoftBank then picked up the firm in 2017 for an undisclosed sum.
Hyundai’s acquisition of BD is one step in its goal to assemble “tidy-mobility choices.” These choices include self reliant autos, synthetic intelligence, urban air mobility, tidy factories, and robotics. The carmaker plans to make utilize of BD to “make a robotics payment chain, from robot factor manufacturing to tidy logistics choices.”
Hyundai’s imaginative and prescient would now not mean that Boston Dynamics will conclude making industrial robots. On the contrary, the contemporary father or mother plans to develop BD’s world sales and repair footprint for its contemporary product line. Its Space robot is for the time being deployed across quite a lot of industries, including construction, energy, utilities, manufacturing, oil, gas, and mining. The robotic canine used to be even instant feeble by law enforcement in Contemporary York, but the NYPD canceled its contract with Boston Dynamics after public backlash.
