By Samantha Murphy Kelly | Updated on Oct 06, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Boston Dynamics appointed former Amazon.com Inc. executive Rohit Prasad as chief executive officer to lead the Hyundai Motor Co.-controlled company into its next era of innovation and commercialization of its robots.
Boston Dynamics, known for its agile humanoid robots, is currently developing robotic systems for industrial and other real-world environments, an area called physical AI. Hyundai, which acquired majority ownership of Boston Dynamics in 2021, said earlier this year it plans to deploy the unit’s Atlas robot at its plant in Georgia starting in 2028 and build the capacity to produce as many as 30,000 humanoids annually.
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Prasad spent 12 years at Amazon helping build and expand smart assistant Alexa. Before joining Amazon, he worked 14 years at Raytheon BBN Technologies overseeing machine-learning research and real-world applications for US government and commercial use, Boston Dynamics said Tuesday in a statement.
Earlier this year, Robert Playter stepped down after six years as Boston Dynamics CEO, only the second leader in that post in the company’s more than 30-year history. Since then, several top executives have left the company, including Chief Technology Officer Aaron Saunders.
At the same time, Hyundai is moving to acquire SoftBank Group Corp. ’s remaining stake in Boston Dynamics to secure full ownership of the robotics pioneer. Hyundai has also sealed strategic partnerships with Nvidia Corp . and Google DeepMind to develop Atlas. The robots are expected to begin simple tasks like welding and logistics, before being mobilized for more complex manufacturing processes, including component assembly, by 2030.