Hyundai Motor Co. is to acquire the US robotics firm Boston Dynamics Inc. from SoftBank Group for slightly less than 1 trillion won ($921 million) and will finalize the acquisition at its December 10 board meeting https://www.kedglobal.com/newsView/ked202012080011

The acquisition will be the first buyout deal for Chung Eui-Sun as the new Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group since he assumed the position in October, and accelerates the group’s push into the future mobility market

Hyundai has chosen robotics as one of its new growth engines alongside electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell cars

Hyundai Motor will fund about half of the acquisition price, or more than 400 billion won, and its affiliates including auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis Co. will fund for the remainder, the sources told the Market Insight, The Korea Economic Daily's capital market news outlet

Boston Dynamics is famous for technologically advanced but unprofitable machines such as Spot, a maneuverable dog-like robot, while Hyundai Motor has focused on wheeled robots intended for factory use

Spot was unveiled in 2015 and is a four-legged robot that can trot, climb stairs and open doors

Boston Dynamics has also introduced the humanoid robot Atlas and the bird-like mobile robot Handle designed for logistics services

The US robot maker was originally spun off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992, then acquired by Google owner Alphabet in 2014 and sold to SoftBank in 2017

Last month sources had said that Hyundai Motor has hired Goldman Sachs as its adviser and top Korean law firm Kim & Chang as the legal counsel in its bid to acquire Boston Dynamics

Hyundai Motor has shown growing interest in automated vehicle technology and robotics over the past years and said it will invest up to 1.5 trillion won ($1.4 billion) in robotics by 2025

Since Chairman Chung set up Hyundai Robotics within the group in 2018 as its then executive vice chairman, the automotive group has invested in the autonomous vehicle startup 42dot and Realtime Robotics, a Boston-based startup, last year

Chung said in a town hall meeting with group employees in October that robotics will account for 20% of its future business, with automobiles taking up half of its sales followed by Urban Air Mobility UAM at 30%

In a new year’s speech early this year Chung said the group will invest 100 trillion won in the future mobility, including personal air vehicles, robotics and last-mile delivery robots . . .

. . . as well as existing engine vehicles, signaling its intent to pursue additional acquisitions of mobility-related companies