Hyundai Motor, the Korean car company, will buy from the Japanese multinational SoftBank the majority of the shares in Boston Dynamics, an engineering and robotics company that in recent years has become known above all for having built some mobile prototypes, including BigDog, a robot dog for the US military.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Hyundai will participate in Boston Dynamics – valued at around $ 1 billion – for 80 percent (20 percent will remain with SoftBank). “This transaction will combine the capabilities of Hyundai Motor and Boston Dynamics to drive innovation in future mobility,” said Hyundai Motor President Euisun Chung.
– Read also: The new video with the progress of Google robots
Boston Dynamics was founded in the United States in 1992 by a group of researchers from MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2013 it was acquired by Alphabet, the Google holding, which however in June 2017 sold it to the large Japanese group SoftBank for an undisclosed amount. Over the years, the company has had money not only from Google and SoftBank but also from the US Department of Defense, among others.
– Read also: A ring to rule them
