Boston Dynamics CEO Rohit Prasad Faces IPO Valuation Test

Rohit Prasad, who became Boston Dynamics CEO on Wednesday, Oct 7, takes over a company whose losses ran at 3.5 times revenue in 2025 and widened to more than five times in the first quarter of 2026, according to figures Korean outlet Bloter compiled from Hyundai Glovis filings. That loss trend now runs into two dated tests: an IPO window Meritz Securities puts at 2029 or 2030, and Hyundai's plan to put Atlas humanoids into parts sequencing from 2028 and component assembly by 2030. The only recent deal price, about 5 trillion won, was fixed in a 2021 contract, while market estimates run from 30 trillion to 150 trillion won.

What Boston Dynamics Announced

Boston Dynamics said on Tuesday, Oct 6, 2026 in a company press release that Prasad would become chief executive effective Oct 7. He spent 12 years at Amazon, most recently as Senior Vice President and Head Scientist for Alexa and Artificial General Intelligence, where he helped build Alexa from its earliest days and led the Amazon Nova foundation models. Before that he spent nearly 14 years at Raytheon BBN Technologies. He is expected to join the board, subject to approval.

Board chair Jaehoon Chang, a vice chair of Hyundai Motor Group, cited Prasad's "proven ability to turn AI into products at global scale."

Three CEOs in 34 Years

Founder Marc Raibert ran Boston Dynamics from 1992 until 2020, The Robot Report says. Robert Playter, at the company for more than 30 years, then served about six years as CEO. His staff memo, published by Business Insider, set his last day as Feb 27, 2026, with CFO Amanda McMaster as interim CEO. By TradeFlock's calculation, the interim lasted about seven months (Feb 27 to Oct 7 is 222 days).

Hyundai investors welcomed the exit. Reuters reported that Hyundai Motor shares rose 5.9% in Seoul on Wednesday, Feb 11, and Macquarie analyst James Hong said Playter's team had been "R&D-oriented." Replacing a longtime engineer with a consumer AI product builder is Hyundai's answer. TradeFlock noted on Oct. 7 that Stryker promoted insider Spencer Stiles instead.

The Loss Multiple Prasad Inherits

Boston Dynamics is a private US company and does not publish results. Bloter rebuilt its numbers on Wednesday, Aug 5, 2026 from summary financials that Hyundai Glovis, a shareholder, discloses in its filings on Korea's DART system. Bloter put five-year net losses from 2021 to 2025 at 1.7558 trillion won against cumulative revenue of 502.2 billion won, a loss multiple of 3.50. Bloter's multiple for 2025 alone was 3.52.

The first quarter of 2026 was worse. Bloter reported revenue of 34.9 billion won, down 2.49% from 35.7 billion a year earlier, and a quarterly net loss of 183.8 billion won, up 53.53% from 119.7 billion. That lifted the multiple from 3.35 to 5.27. Playter was CEO for most of that quarter, so the figures describe the business Prasad inherits, not his record.

Maeil Business Newspaper put annual net losses at 254 billion won in 2022 and 528.4 billion won in 2025, about 2.1 times higher by TradeFlock's calculation (528.4 divided by 254). Seoul Economic Daily reported 3.28 trillion won of capital injected by Hyundai and noted the original acquisition agreement included a provision for an IPO within four years. By TradeFlock's calculation, that four-year mark from the June 2021 deal passed in mid-2025 without a listing.

What the SoftBank Deal Does and Does Not Price

On Thursday, July 16, Hyundai Motor Group said in a statement that the group's shareholders in Boston Dynamics "are pursuing the acquisition of SoftBank's entire stake" under existing agreements, after SoftBank exercised a put option. The relevant shareholders were reviewing it through "internal governance and approval processes." The stake was reported at 9.65% by Yonhap and about 10% by Reuters, which said the deal would make Boston Dynamics a wholly owned subsidiary. On Sept 14, Reuters still described it as plans.

Terms were not disclosed. Reuters cited local media putting the price at about 500 billion won, and Kiwoom analyst Shin Yoonchul said that implied about 5 trillion won. By TradeFlock's calculation, 500 billion won for a 10% stake implies 5.0 trillion won for the whole company, or 5.18 trillion at 9.65% (500 billion divided by 0.0965). Maeil Business reported the put trades at a price set in the 2021 contract, so this is not a fresh market test.

How Far Apart the Valuations Sit

Yonhap and Dong-A both said the market values Boston Dynamics at more than 30 trillion won, which is six times the contract figure by TradeFlock's calculation (30 divided by 5). In March the Korea Herald said some brokerages sat at 40 trillion to 60 trillion won, with KB Securities near 128 trillion and Hanwha Investment and Securities up to 150 trillion. A Sept 14 Reuters report cited Samsung Securities at 50 trillion to 100 trillion won.

What This Means for the IPO Clock

Is Boston Dynamics a public company? No. Asked about a 2027 listing, a senior Hyundai executive told Reuters, "It won't be easy." Reuters noted Atlas is not yet deployed at scale and the company is unprofitable. Meritz Securities analyst Kim Joon-sung told Reuters a listing was more likely in 2029 or 2030. That is later than earlier hopes: in July, Dong-A said the industry considered a Nasdaq listing around 2027 to 2028 highly likely.

Hyundai's July 16 statement says it plans to deploy Atlas at its Georgia Metaplant beginning in 2028 for parts sequencing, extending to component assembly by 2030, "subject to continued technology validation, operational readiness and business requirements." Reuters reported that Hyundai is also seeking a factory able to build 30,000 robots a year by 2028, a plan TradeFlock covered when Hyundai outlined its US factory robots.

For Prasad, that sets a short clock. A 2029 listing would come after one year of Atlas sequencing work and before the assembly milestone, while the loss multiple is still widening. His Alexa record is in turning lab technology into a product at scale, which answers the R&D label Macquarie applied in February. The first proof will be Atlas units doing paid work outside demonstrations.

The family has a stake in the answer. The Korea Herald reported that Executive Chair Chung Euisun owns more than 20% of Boston Dynamics, bought for roughly $220 million in 2021.

Cover photo: Jérémy Barande / Ecole polytechnique via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)