Robotics and AI Institute

Robotics · Artificial Intelligence

Acquisition

SoftBank agrees to acquire Robotics and AI Institute from Hyundai

The deal reunites SoftBank with a research lab founded by the same engineer who built Boston Dynamics under its former ownership.

• SoftBank Group Corp. has agreed to acquire the Robotics and AI Institute (RAI) from Hyundai Motor Group; financial terms are undisclosed and the deal is now under CFIUS national security review.
• RAI, based in Cambridge, Mass., researches robot control, perception, manipulation, navigation and AI, including the whole-body learning framework behind Boston Dynamics' Atlas acrobatics.
• RAI was founded in 2022 by Marc Raibert when Hyundai acquired Boston Dynamics; Hyundai spun it out with over $400 million in initial funding, which has since ended.
• SoftBank previously owned Boston Dynamics from 2017 to 2021, before selling it to Hyundai, giving it a direct history with Raibert's robotics work.
• The RAI deal follows SoftBank's separate pending $5.3 billion acquisition of ABB's robotics business, originally expected to close by mid-to-late 2026.
• CFIUS could delay or block the transaction, and it is unclear how far along the review process currently stands.
• Pairing RAI's AI research with ABB's industrial robotics scale suggests SoftBank is assembling a full-stack robotics portfolio rather than making an isolated bet.