IPO for humanoid robot maker Boston Dynamics unlikely in 2027, executive says
Boston Dynamics, Hyundai Motor Group’s humanoid robot unit, is unlikely to pursue an IPO next year, a senior parent-company executive with direct knowledge told Reuters — citing that flagship Atlas robots are not yet deployed at scale and the unit remains unprofitable.
Investor dreams of a near-term U.S. humanoid IPO just met a same-day parent-company reality check — Atlas still isn’t factory-scale and the books are still red, pushing the listing conversation toward the end of the decade.
Reuters’ Heejin Kim and Hyunjoo Jin, writing from Seoul, reported that Boston Dynamics is unlikely to pursue an initial public offering — a company’s first sale of shares to the public — next year. They cite a senior Hyundai Motor Group executive with direct knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named because the matter is confidential. Boston Dynamics is the U.S. robotics company Hyundai bought a controlling stake in during 2021. Atlas is its flagship humanoid robot: a two-legged machine built to walk and work like a person. That Reuters exclusive, carried the same day by Zawya and KRRO as open wire mirrors, is the filing event. This is unnamed-source reporting. This desk does not treat it as a Hyundai or Boston Dynamics announcement.
Asked whether an IPO was possible next year, the executive said: “It won’t be easy.” He added: “We need to see conditions and situations,” without elaborating. Reuters frames the reason as this: Atlas robots are not yet deployed at scale, and the unit is still unprofitable. File those as the executive’s words and Reuters’ frame. This desk is not saying a 2027 listing was cancelled. Hyundai has not published a public timetable to cancel.
Hyundai Motor Group has not publicly disclosed a timetable or a valuation target for a Boston Dynamics listing. Reuters says the group did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and that Boston Dynamics was not available outside business hours.
Hyundai took a controlling stake in 2021. In July, Reuters says, it announced plans to own the company outright by buying SoftBank’s roughly 10% stake at an undisclosed valuation. Media reports at the time put that buy at about 500 billion won — about $372 million. The won is South Korea’s currency. File the 500 billion won line as those media reports, not as a Hyundai-stated price. SoftBank’s Monday Tokyo print and its OpenAI loan tip are already filed as softbank-tokyo-plunge-ai-safety and softbank-openai-loan-11-87b. Do not reprint those as this news.
Reuters says Hyundai Motor shares more than doubled after the company unveiled a production Atlas at the January Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, then gave back much of that gain. Shares are up about 25% year to date, Reuters says, against about 60% for the broader market. Those are Reuters’ tape lines. This desk did not watch the tape, and it is not giving investment advice.
Kim Joon-sung, an analyst at Meritz Securities, told Reuters a Boston Dynamics IPO is more likely in 2029 or 2030 — after Hyundai gathers operating data and can sell robots more broadly to outside customers. Kim Hyun-su, a senior fund manager at IBK Asset Management in Seoul, was skeptical that humanoids can soon replace factory workers. Quoted, as Reuters reports him: “I think it might take far more time for humanoid robots to replace human workers at the assembly line.” And: “It’s not difficult to make robots dancing, but it’s challenging to make them carry heavy loads and get involved in manufacturing at plants.” File those as attributed views — not this desk’s forecast.
Hyundai has said it wants a factory able to make 30,000 robots a year by 2028, and to start putting humanoids into its U.S. plant in Georgia that year before spreading them through its factories. Reuters says some analysts call those targets ambitious. File them as Hyundai’s plan plus that analyst caveat — not as a count of robots already on a line.
Valuation talk in the same Reuters piece is analyst and market-estimate talk only. Samsung Securities said market estimates put Boston Dynamics at 50 trillion to 100 trillion won — about $37 billion to $74 billion at Reuters’ won-dollar line of $1 = 1,345.8500 won. In August, IBK Securities said the company could be worth 141 trillion won by 2030 — about $105 billion at that same line — if it then does about 11 trillion won in revenue, about $8.2 billion. File those as named-desk estimates. They are not a Hyundai valuation, not a filed prospectus, and not a reason to buy or sell anything.
Boston Dynamics lost 528.4 billion won in 2025 — about $393 million at Reuters’ FX line — according to a Hyundai Glovis filing Reuters cites. Losses from 2021 through 2025 totaled nearly 1.7 trillion won, that filing said, about $1.3 billion at the same line. Glovis holds about 11%. Other shareholders Reuters names are Hyundai Motor, Kia, auto-parts maker Hyundai Mobis, and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung.
REPORTED here: Reuters’ Seoul exclusive by Heejin Kim and Hyunjoo Jin, as carried on Zawya and KRRO. NOT claimed: that a 2027 IPO was cancelled — there was no public timetable — a Hyundai or Boston Dynamics confirmation, a locked listing year, or investment advice from this desk. Distinct from the already-filed softbank-tokyo-plunge-ai-safety and softbank-openai-loan-11-87b — this filing is the Boston Dynamics listing-timing tip only.