By Heejin Kim and Hyunjoo Jin
SEOUL, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Boston Dynamics, Hyundai Motor Group's humanoid robot unit, is unlikely to pursue an initial public offering next year, a senior executive at the parent company with direct knowledge of the matter said, as it has yet to deploy its flagship Atlas robots at scale and remains unprofitable.
The executive's comments suggest a stock market debut for the U.S.-based robotics company may still be years away, despite investor enthusiasm for Hyundai's robotics ambitions,
which helped send automaker Hyundai Motor shares to record highs earlier this year.
"It won't be easy," the executive said when asked whether an IPO was possible next year.
"We need to see conditions and situations," he added, without elaborating. He asked not to be named publicly because the matter is confidential.
Hyundai Motor Group has not publicly disclosed a timetable or valuation target for a potential Boston Dynamics listing. The group did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Boston Dynamics was not available for comment outside business hours.
Since the unveiling of the updated Atlas robot in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, investors and analysts have closely watched whether the company would pursue a U.S. IPO for Boston Dynamics to help finance its growth. Analysts have published estimates for the company's sales growth and potential valuations due to increasing interest among investors in the robot maker.
Hyundai bought a controlling stake in Boston Dynamics in 2021, and in July, it announced plans to make the company a wholly owned subsidiary by acquiring SoftBank's roughly 10% stake at an undisclosed valuation.
At the time, media reports said the transaction was likely worth about 500 billion won ($371.51 million).
The South Korean group's push into robotics has drawn attention from investors. Hyundai Motor shares more than doubled earlier this year after it unveiled the production version of its Atlas robot in January, though they have since given up much of those gains amid a lack of updates on its robotics strategy.
Shares of Hyundai Motor, the world's third-largest auto group along with affiliate Kia, are up 25% so far this year, lagging behind a 60% surge in the broader market.
IPO LIKELY YEARS AWAY
Analysts say Boston Dynamics is unlikely to go public in the next few years because humanoid robots are still not able to be deployed widely in factories.
Hyundai has said it is seeking to build a factory capable of producing 30,000 robots a year by 2028 and plans to begin deploying humanoid robots at its U.S. plant in Georgia that year before spreading them across its manufacturing network. Some analysts have said those targets are ambitious.
"I think it might take far more time for humanoid robots to replace human workers at the assembly line," said Kim Hyun-su, a senior fund manager at Seoul-based IBK Asset Management.
"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."
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose company is developing the Optimus humanoid robot, has described humanoid robots as "the hardest product to scale manufacturing" that the electric car maker has made.
Boston Dynamics' valuations vary widely. Samsung Securities said market estimates place its value at between 50 trillion won and 100 trillion won.
Kim Joon-sung, an analyst at Meritz Securities, said a Boston Dynamics IPO was more likely to come in 2029 or 2030 because Hyundai first needed to gather large amounts of operational data and improve robots' capabilities before selling them broadly to external customers.
In August, IBK Securities said Boston Dynamics could be valued at 141 trillion won by 2030, when it expects the company to generate about 11 trillion won in revenue.
Boston Dynamics recorded a 2025 loss of 528.4 billion won, according to a filing from Hyundai Glovis, which holds a stake of about 11% in the company. Total losses from 2021 through 2025 totalled nearly 1.7 trillion won, the filing said.
Other Boston Dynamics shareholders include Hyundai Motor, Kia, auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung.
($1 = 1,345.8500 won)
(Reporting by Heejin Kim; Editing by Miyoung Kim, Ed Davies and Thomas Derpinghaus)
