The Robotics and AI Institute (RAI Institute) is a robotics and artificial intelligence research organization headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a second office in Zurich, Switzerland. It was launched on 12 August 2022 as the Boston Dynamics AI Institute by Hyundai Motor Group, which said the Group and Boston Dynamics would make an initial investment of more than $400 million, with Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert leading it.[1] The organization later operated as "The AI Institute" and took its current name on 4 February 2025.[2][3] Its launch announcement described it as a research-first organization combining features of university research labs and corporate development labs.[1] Its published work includes reinforcement learning for Boston Dynamics' Spot and Atlas robots, custom athletic robots such as the Ultra Mobility Vehicle (UMV) bicycle robot and the AthenaZero manipulator, and a research group on the ethics and social effects of robots.[1][2][4][5]

As of June 2026, Hyundai Motor Company held 47.5% of Robotics and AI Institute LLC and had decided to sell its entire interest.[6] On 18 September 2026, The Robot Report, citing multiple sources, reported that SoftBank Group had agreed to acquire the institute from Hyundai Motor Group and that the deal was under review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Neither company had announced the deal at the time of that report.[7]

History

Founding (2022)

Hyundai Motor Group announced the institute on 12 August 2022 from Seoul and Cambridge. The announcement said the Group and Boston Dynamics would make "an initial investment of more than $400 million" and that the institute would work in four core technical areas: cognitive AI, athletic AI, organic hardware design, and ethics and policy. It would be headquartered in Kendall Square in Cambridge and planned to partner with universities and corporate research labs.[1] Raibert, named executive director, said in the release: "Our mission is to create future generations of advanced robots and intelligent machines that are smarter, more agile, perceptive and safer than anything that exists today."[1]

IEEE Spectrum reported on launch day that Al Rizzi, then chief scientist at Boston Dynamics, would be the institute's chief technology officer.[8] The Robot Report later described the institute as founded "as part of Hyundai's acquisition of Boston Dynamics", with Hyundai spinning it out with an initial investment of more than $400 million.[7]

"The AI Institute" and expansion (2023 to 2024)

By September 2023 the organization was using the name "The AI Institute". On 26 September 2023 it announced that Kate Darling, previously at the MIT Media Lab, would lead a new research team on ethics and the societal impact of robotics and AI. That release described the goal of creating "the 'Bell Labs of Robotics and AI.'"[2] In an October 2023 TechCrunch interview, Raibert acknowledged that "Boston Dynamics AI Institute" might not be an instructive name, both because it was confused with Boston Dynamics the company and because it seemed to put AI ahead of robotics. TechCrunch reported that a name change was coming but had not been decided.[9]

On 6 December 2023 the institute announced that Marco Hutter, professor of robotics at ETH Zurich and director of the ETH Center for Robotics, would lead a new Zurich office. Hutter had been a visiting fellow since March 2023. The Zurich office was described as the institute's second office and European headquarters, set to open in early 2024.[10]

In 2024, Boston Dynamics released a Reinforcement Learning Researcher Kit for Spot that it had developed jointly with the institute.[4]

Rename to RAI Institute (2025)

On 4 February 2025 the institute's official account announced: "The AI Institute is now the Robotics and AI Institute, or RAI Institute! Our name and branding have evolved to better reflect who we are and what we're building."[3] The next day's press release on the Atlas partnership referred to "the Robotics and AI Institute (formerly The AI Institute)".[4] Hyundai Motor Company's financial statements record that the legal entity's name changed from Boston Dynamics AI Institute, LLC to Robotics and AI Institute LLC during the year ended 31 December 2025.[6]

On 15 September 2025 the institute celebrated the opening of its new centre in Zurich Oerlikon. In an interview with ETH Zurich published the next day, Hutter said the institute had over 250 employees globally and about 30 in Zurich, a number he expected to rise to 50 soon. He said the institute had signed a framework agreement with ETH Zurich and a donation agreement with the ETH Foundation USA, and that he had reduced his professorship to 50% to head the Zurich office.[11]

The institute's review of 2025, published on 3 February 2026, said it had grown to more than 250 researchers, engineers and staff and that its researchers had published over 30 papers in 2025.[5]

Hyundai stake sale and reported SoftBank deal (2026)

Hyundai Motor Company's interim consolidated financial statements for the six months ended 30 June 2026 (review report dated 14 August 2026) state that during that period "the Group decided to sell its entire interest in Robotics and AI Institute LLC and, accordingly, reclassified the full investment as a non-current asset held for sale."[6] The statements do not name a buyer or a price.[6] Reporting on the filing on 21 August 2026, The Asia Business Daily named SoftBank as the buyer, while noting that Hyundai's report did not specify the counterparty, price or timing. It quoted a Hyundai Motor Group official as saying that "This move is meant to respond to the physical AI market environment with Boston Dynamics at the core."[12]

On 18 September 2026 The Robot Report reported, citing multiple sources, that SoftBank Group Corp. had agreed to acquire the institute from Hyundai Motor Group (details below).[7]

Timeline

Date	Event	Source
12 August 2022	Hyundai Motor Group launches the Boston Dynamics AI Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with an initial investment of more than $400 million from the Group and Boston Dynamics; Marc Raibert leads it	[1]
12 August 2022	IEEE Spectrum reports Al Rizzi as chief technology officer	[8]
26 September 2023	As "The AI Institute", hires Kate Darling to lead an ethics and society research team	[2]
6 December 2023	Names Marco Hutter to lead a new Zurich office, planned to open in early 2024	[10]
2024	Boston Dynamics releases the Spot Reinforcement Learning Researcher Kit, developed jointly with the institute	[4]
4 February 2025	Renamed the Robotics and AI Institute (RAI Institute)	[3]
5 February 2025	Announces a reinforcement learning partnership with Boston Dynamics for the electric Atlas	[4][13]
15 September 2025	Opening of the new Zurich Oerlikon centre celebrated	[11]
Year ended 31 December 2025	Legal name changes from Boston Dynamics AI Institute, LLC to Robotics and AI Institute LLC	[6]
First half of 2026	Hyundai Motor Company decides to sell its entire 47.5% interest	[6]
12 August 2026	ZEST paper, with Boston Dynamics co-authors, published in Science Robotics	[14][15]
16 September 2026	AthenaZero paper published in Science Robotics	[16]
18 September 2026	The Robot Report reports that SoftBank has agreed to acquire the institute, subject to CFIUS review	[7]

Leadership and organization

The institute's leadership pages list the following executives as of September 2026:

Name	Title	Background (per the institute)	Source
Marc Raibert	Founder and Executive Director	Founder of Boston Dynamics; earlier a professor at MIT and CMU, where he created the Leg Laboratory	[17]
Al Rizzi	Chief Technology Officer	Former Chief Scientist at Boston Dynamics; former faculty at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University	[18]
Marco Hutter	Senior Director, Zurich	Professor for Robotics at ETH Zurich and director of the ETH Center for Robotics	[19]
Jessica Hodgins	VP, Research	Newell University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University; previously led research labs for Disney and Meta	[20]
Ben Lubetsky	Chief Operating Officer	Former VP of Business Development at MAK Technologies	[21]
Mark Keck	VP, Engineering	Former Head of Research and Development at RightHand Robotics	[22]
Ann Marie Strong	VP, Finance	More than 20 years in finance, starting at Ernst and Young	[23]
Kim MacMillan	VP, People Operations	More than 25 years leading people operations at four global technology companies	[24]

The institute has two offices: its main campus at 145 Broadway in Kendall Square, Cambridge, and a Zurich office on Elias-Canetti-Strasse near Oerlikon station.[25] Hutter told ETH Zurich in 2025 that the two sites share a software group for machine learning infrastructure and a hardware group that builds and maintains the robots.[11]

Ownership

Hyundai Motor Company's financial statements account for Robotics and AI Institute LLC as an equity-method investment with a 47.50% ownership share. The investment's carrying amount was KRW 101,885 million at 31 December 2025. In the first half of 2026 Hyundai Motor Company recorded a KRW 53,255 million share of the institute's losses before reclassifying the investment as held for sale.[6] The same statements report that the institute had no sales and a loss of KRW 99,219 million for the six months ended 30 June 2025.[6] The Korean outlet The Guru reported that the institute was launched with ownership split among Hyundai Motor Company (47.5%), Kia (28.5%), Hyundai Mobis (19%) and Boston Dynamics (5%).[26] Hyundai Motor Company's own filing reports only its 47.5% share.[6]

Research programs

At launch the institute described four core areas: cognitive AI, athletic AI, organic hardware design, and ethics and policy.[1] As of September 2026 its website lists five research areas:[27]

Research area	Description (per the institute)
Dexterous Manipulation	Algorithms, data and hardware for robots to dynamically manipulate objects for tasks such as assembly, repair and transport, going beyond static grasping
Advanced Learning for Control	Reinforcement learning for control, high-level direction by AI algorithms, incremental learning of new behavior, and adaptation to novel environments
Data-Driven AI Models for Physical Robot Interaction	Foundation models that combine data-driven learning with principled physical models for tasks needing precise force control and tight tolerances
Navigation in Challenging Environments	Sensing and mobility for semantic navigation by wheeled, humanoid and quadruped robots in factories, homes and cities
Ethics of Robots in Society	Research on the social, legal and ethical contexts that shape the outcomes of robotics

Selected projects

Project	What the institute reports	Source
Spot reinforcement learning	RL policies raised Spot's running speed from 1.7 m/s (3.8 mph) to 5.2 m/s (11.5 mph), more than three times its default maximum	[4][5]
Atlas reinforcement learning	Human motion capture data was retargeted and a control policy was learned with RL from about 150 million simulator runs, then transferred to the Atlas hardware zero-shot	[5]
Ultra Mobility Vehicle (UMV)	A wheeled robot combining a carbon fiber bike frame with a jumping mechanism; trained with RL to jump onto a one-meter table, front flip, hold a wheelie and hop on its rear wheel. The UMV mini has over 90 custom parts built in house	[5]
AthenaZero	A custom, low-impedance robot with human-like mass and torque properties, built to study dynamic manipulation; it threw a baseball at 31.3 m/s (70 mph) and could catch and bat at 7 meters (23 ft)	[5][16]
ReLIC	"Reinforcement Learning for Interlimb Coordination" lets a legged robot reassign which limbs support and which manipulate; it averaged a 78.9% success rate on 12 real-world loco-manipulation tasks	[5]
Spot tire manipulation	A hierarchical controller combining sampling-based control and RL uprighted tires in 5.9 seconds on average and moved a 15 kg (33 lb) tire, above Spot's 11 kg (24 lb) peak lift capacity; it relied on motion capture and offboard computation	[5]
ZEST	A motion-imitation framework that trains whole-body control policies with RL from motion capture, monocular video and animation, and deploys them zero-shot to Atlas, the Unitree G1 and Spot	[14][15]

The ZEST paper (arXiv, 30 January 2026) lists 28 authors affiliated with the RAI Institute and Boston Dynamics, including Rizzi and Hodgins. It reports that on Atlas the framework learned skills such as an army crawl and breakdancing from motion capture, transferred dance and box-climbing skills from videos to Atlas and the Unitree G1, and gave Spot a continuous backflip learned from animation. The paper states that the Atlas and Spot work involved all authors, while RAI Institute authors did the Unitree G1 work.[14] The institute lists the paper as published in Science Robotics on 12 August 2026.[15]

In 2025 the institute ran a public outreach center, the Robot Lab, at the CambridgeSide Galleria mall. It reported more than 10,000 visitors over the summer and survey results suggesting that visitors who drove Spot felt more confident about the usefulness of robots.[5]

Open-source software

The institute publishes code under the "RAI Open Source" GitHub organization, which lists the institute's website and had 51 public repositories as of September 2026.[28] Examples include Judo, a toolbox for sampling-based model predictive control that uses MuJoCo as its physics backend[29][30]; vlfm, code for the paper "VLFM: Vision-Language Frontier Maps for Zero-Shot Semantic Navigation"; spot_ros2, a ROS 2 driver for Boston Dynamics' Spot; theia, for distilling vision foundation models for robot learning; and relic, the supplementary code for the ReLIC loco-manipulation paper.[28]

Collaborations

Boston Dynamics

The institute and Boston Dynamics share a founder in Raibert, and both have been backed by Hyundai Motor Group. TechCrunch described the institute in 2025 as "technically a separate organization" that shared "a parent company, founder, and, presumably, common goals" with Boston Dynamics.[31]

On 5 February 2025 the two organizations announced a partnership to build a shared reinforcement learning training pipeline for the electric Atlas. The stated objectives were sim-to-real transfer for mobility, whole-body loco-manipulation, and full-body contact strategies such as dynamic running and full-body manipulation of heavy objects. The release said the work had started that month and built on joint development of Spot's RL Researcher Kit, which had been used to reach running speeds of 11.5 mph (5.2 m/s).[4][13] Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter said the collaboration "brings together two of the world's leading robotics organizations to help accelerate core capabilities needed to make robots like Atlas a valuable tool in people's lives."[4] Raibert said working on Atlas let the institute advance RL "on arguably the most sophisticated humanoid robot available."[4]

The institute's 2025 review said this work fed demonstrations including quadruped flips on "America's Got Talent" and Atlas walking on stage at CES, and that the two organizations would next work on whole-body loco-manipulation and full-body contact strategies aimed at automotive manufacturing.[5] The Robot Report wrote in September 2026 that the institute "developed the whole-body learning framework that enables the acrobatic movements showcased by Boston Dynamics' new Atlas."[7]

Academic partners

The Zurich office has a research framework agreement with ETH Zurich and a joint lab agreement covering Hutter's dual role. Under it, results from selected joint projects are held jointly and either party may publish them.[11] The 2022 launch announcement said the institute planned to partner with universities and corporate research labs,[1] and its website lists visiting fellows from universities.[25]

Reported SoftBank acquisition (2026)

At the time of The Robot Report's 18 September 2026 article, neither company had commented publicly on the deal. What is known comes from Hyundai's filing and from press reports:

Item	What the sources say	Source
Seller's decision	Hyundai Motor Company decided in the first half of 2026 to sell its entire 47.5% interest and classified it as held for sale	[6]
Buyer	The Asia Business Daily (21 August 2026) and The Robot Report (18 September 2026) name SoftBank Group	[12][7]
Seller	The Robot Report says the institute is being acquired "from Hyundai Motor Group"	[7]
Price	"Financial terms of the deal are unknown at this time" (The Robot Report)	[7]
Regulatory review	Under review by CFIUS; "It is unknown how far along in the review process this deal is"	[7]
Company comment	The RAI Institute told The Robot Report: "We don't have anything to share on this topic right now." SoftBank had not responded at press time	[7]
Funding	The Robot Report reported, citing multiple sources, that the initial funding of more than $400 million had ended	[7]
Raibert's role	Unknown if the deal closes, according to The Robot Report	[7]

Context

The reported deal is part of a wider rearrangement between SoftBank and Hyundai. SoftBank Group agreed to buy Boston Dynamics in 2017, completed the purchase in February 2018, and sold a controlling stake to Hyundai Motor Group in 2021.[7][36] On 16 July 2026 Hyundai Motor Group said its shareholders were pursuing the acquisition of SoftBank's entire remaining stake in Boston Dynamics after SoftBank gave notice that it was exercising a put option.[32] The Robot Report put that stake at 9.65%.[7]

SoftBank is also buying the robotics business of ABB. SoftBank Group announced a definitive agreement on 8 October 2025 to acquire it for a total purchase price of USD 5.375 billion, subject to regulatory approvals in the European Union, China and the United States, and expected the deal to close in mid-to-late 2026.[33] In its second-quarter 2026 results on 16 July 2026, ABB said it anticipated completing the divestment in the second half of 2026.[34] SoftBank's announcement described the ABB deal as strengthening its AI robotics business alongside existing robotics investments such as SoftBank Robotics, Agile Robots and Skild AI.[33]

Reception

At the launch, IEEE Spectrum senior editor Evan Ackerman wrote that Boston Dynamics had been pursuing a commercial path and a separate research path at once, and that by separating from "the part of Boston Dynamics that wants to sell useful robots and make money", the institute would be free to focus on forward-looking research "without having to constantly commercially justify itself."[8] TechCrunch compared the institute to the Toyota Research Institute, noting that both were dedicated to research and backed by a major automaker.[9] In September 2023 the institute republished TIME's profile of Raibert from its list of "The 100 Most Influential People in AI".[35]

Korean coverage of the 2026 sale presented it as Hyundai separating long-term research from commercialization.[12][26] The Asia Business Daily described the sale as a realignment of Hyundai's robotics strategy around Boston Dynamics and its products such as Atlas, rather than an exit from physical AI research.[12] The Robot Report noted that if the deal closes, SoftBank would again "own a piece of Raibert's robotics legacy".[7]

See also

References

Hyundai Motor Group. "Hyundai Motor Group Launches Boston Dynamics AI Institute to Spearhead Advancements in Artificial Intelligence & Robotics." Hyundai Newsroom, 12 August 2022. https://www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/newsroom/detail/0000000106
The AI Institute. "The Institute Launches Ethics Research Initiative for Robotics and AI." Press release, 26 September 2023. https://rai-inst.com/resources/press-release/ai-institute-launches-ethics-research/
RAI Institute (@rai_inst). "The AI Institute is now the Robotics and AI Institute, or RAI Institute!" X post, 4 February 2025. https://x.com/rai_inst/status/1886788015072203040
RAI Institute. "Boston Dynamics and the Robotics and AI Institute Partner to Advance Humanoid Robots Through Reinforcement Learning." Press release, 5 February 2025. https://rai-inst.com/resources/press-release/boston-dynamics-atlas-partnership/
RAI Institute. "RAI Institute 2025: A Year of Innovation for Robotics and AI." Blog, 3 February 2026. https://rai-inst.com/resources/blog/rai-institute-2025-a-year-of-innovation-for-robotics-and-ai/
Hyundai Motor Company. "Interim Consolidated Financial Statements for the Three-Month and Six-Month Periods Ended June 30, 2026 (Unaudited), with the Independent Auditors' Review Report" (review report dated 14 August 2026), notes 8 and 12. https://www.hyundai.com/content/dam/hyundai/ww/en/images/company/investor-relations/financial-Information/report-en/2026/2026-q2-consolidated-audit-report-en.pdf
Crowe, Steve. "SoftBank agrees to acquire Robotics and AI Institute." The Robot Report, 18 September 2026. https://www.therobotreport.com/softbank-agrees-to-acquire-robotics-and-ai-institute/
Ackerman, Evan. "Boston Dynamics AI Institute Targets Basic Research." IEEE Spectrum, 12 August 2022. https://spectrum.ieee.org/boston-dynamics-ai-institute-hyundai
Heater, Brian. "A tale of two research institutes." TechCrunch, 1 October 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/01/a-tale-of-two-research-institutes/
The AI Institute. "The Institute Recruits Dr. Marco Hutter to Lead its Zurich Office." Press release, 6 December 2023. https://rai-inst.com/resources/press-release/the-institute-recruits-dr-marco-hutter-to-lead-its-zurich-office/
ETH Zurich. "The RAI Institute opens up unique opportunities for both researchers and students." ETH News, 16 September 2025. https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2025/09/the-rai-institute-opens-up-unique-opportunities-for-both-researchers-and-students.html
"Hyundai Motor Group to Spin Off 'RAI' Research Organization from Boston Dynamics." The Asia Business Daily, 21 August 2026. https://view.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2026082107464731488
Boston Dynamics. "Boston Dynamics and the RAI Institute Partner." Boston Dynamics news, 5 February 2025. https://bostondynamics.com/news/boston-dynamics-and-the-robotics-ai-institute-partner/
Sleiman, Jean Pierre, et al. "ZEST: Zero-shot Embodied Skill Transfer for Athletic Robot Control." arXiv:2602.00401, 30 January 2026. https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.00401
RAI Institute. "ZEST: Zero-shot embodied skill transfer for athletic robot control." 12 August 2026 (links to Science Robotics, doi:10.1126/scirobotics.aec7695). https://rai-inst.com/resources/in-the-press/zest-zero-shot-embodied-skill-transfer-for-athletic-robot-control/
RAI Institute. "AthenaZero: A low-inertia, bimanual robot for dynamic manipulation." 16 September 2026 (links to Science Robotics, doi:10.1126/scirobotics.aee1868). https://rai-inst.com/resources/in-the-press/athenazero-a-low-inertia-bimanual-robot-for-dynamic-manipulation/
RAI Institute. "Marc Raibert: Founder & Executive Director." Leadership page. Accessed 25 September 2026. https://rai-inst.com/about/leadership/marc-raibert/
RAI Institute. "Al Rizzi." Leadership page. Accessed 25 September 2026. https://rai-inst.com/about/leadership/al-rizzi/
RAI Institute. "Marco Hutter." Leadership page. Accessed 25 September 2026. https://rai-inst.com/about/leadership/marco-hutter/
RAI Institute. "Jessica Hodgins." Leadership page. Accessed 25 September 2026. https://rai-inst.com/about/leadership/jessica-hodgins/
RAI Institute. "Ben Lubetsky." Leadership page. Accessed 25 September 2026. https://rai-inst.com/about/leadership/ben-lubetsky/
RAI Institute. "Mark Keck." Leadership page. Accessed 25 September 2026. https://rai-inst.com/about/leadership/mark-keck/
RAI Institute. "Ann Marie Strong." Leadership page. Accessed 25 September 2026. https://rai-inst.com/about/leadership/ann-marie-strong/
RAI Institute. "Kim MacMillan." Leadership page. Accessed 25 September 2026. https://rai-inst.com/about/leadership/kim-macmillan/
RAI Institute. "About." Accessed 25 September 2026. https://rai-inst.com/about/
Jeong, Ye-rin. "현대차·소프트뱅크, 보스턴다이내믹스 연구조직 'RAI' 매각 합의…美 CFIUS 심사 돌입" (Hyundai and SoftBank agree on sale of Boston Dynamics research organization RAI; US CFIUS review begins). The Guru, 21 September 2026. https://www.theguru.co.kr/news/article.html?no=107323
RAI Institute. "Research." Accessed 25 September 2026. https://rai-inst.com/research/
RAI Open Source. GitHub organization. Accessed 25 September 2026. https://github.com/rai-opensource
RAI Institute. "Judo: A User-Friendly Open-Source Package for Sampling-Based Model Predictive Control." https://rai-inst.com/resources/workshop/judo-open-source-package-for-sampling-based-model-predictive-control/
rai-opensource/judo. "Judo: a hackable sampling-based MPC toolbox." GitHub repository (MIT License). https://github.com/rai-opensource/judo
Heater, Brian. "Boston Dynamics joins forces with its former CEO to speed the learning of its Atlas humanoid robot." TechCrunch, 5 February 2025. https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/05/boston-dynamics-joins-forces-with-its-former-ceo-to-speed-the-learning-of-its-atlas-humanoid-robot/
Hyundai Motor Group. "Hyundai Motor Group's Statement on Boston Dynamics." Hyundai Newsroom, 16 July 2026. https://org.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/newsroom/detail/0000001225
SoftBank Group Corp. "Acquisition of ABB Ltd's Robotics Business." Press release, 8 October 2025. https://group.softbank/en/news/press/20251008
ABB. "Q2 2026 results." Group press release, 16 July 2026. https://www.abb.com/global/en/news/137496/q2-2026-results
RAI Institute. "The 100 Most Influential People in AI." 7 September 2023 (republishing TIME's TIME100 AI profile of Marc Raibert). https://rai-inst.com/resources/press-release/time-100-most-influential-people-ai/
SoftBank Group Corp. "Sale of Shares in Subsidiary Boston Dynamics, Inc." Press release, 11 December 2020. https://group.softbank/en/news/press/20201211_1

Editing: Robotics and AI Institute