Boston Dynamics Names Ex-Amazon Chief Scientist Rohit Prasad as CEO

What Happened

The numbers and the résumé first: the announcement went out on Boston Dynamics’ official site on October 6 (ET) via BusinessWire, with Reuters’ Seoul bureau first-reporting on October 7; Prasad takes over on October 7. He was Amazon’s SVP and Head Scientist for Alexa and AGI; across 12 years at Amazon he took Alexa from its earliest days into hundreds of millions of households, then led the enterprise-facing Nova foundation model family, leaving Amazon at the end of 2025. Before that he spent nearly 14 years at Raytheon BBN Technologies leading machine-learning research for US government and commercial programs, and has lived in the Boston area for over 25 years. Former CEO Robert Playter retired in February after 30+ years at Boston Dynamics; CFO Amanda McMaster has been interim CEO since — the seat sat empty for about 8 months.

Hyundai Motor Group holds the controlling stake. In January Hyundai said it aims to build a factory capable of producing 30,000 robot units a year by 2028 and deploy robots across all of its manufacturing sites. Hyundai vice chair and Boston Dynamics board chair Jaehoon Chang said world-class robotics plus Prasad’s track record of turning AI into global-scale products plus Hyundai’s manufacturing and logistics muscle form a “powerful foundation to build and scale Physical AI.” Earlier this month, Boston Dynamics also unveiled new hands for its Atlas humanoid.

Key Facts

1. The new CEO comes from an AI product line: Prasad ran Amazon’s entire AGI organization — 12 years taking Alexa from an early product into hundreds of millions of households, then the Nova foundation models.
2. The CEO seat was vacant for about 8 months: Playter retired in February after 30+ years; CFO Amanda McMaster served as interim CEO for about 8 months.
3. 30,000 a year: Hyundai’s January target: A factory producing 30,000 robots a year by 2028, deployed across every Hyundai manufacturing site. That is annual capacity plus internal deployment, not sales; buyers, pricing and margins have not been disclosed.
4. The press release mentions “Physical AI” five times: The press release says Physical AI five times: intelligent robotic systems, real-world industrial environments, a new level of autonomy and productivity. Figure and Tesla are also developing humanoid robots.

Context

Boston Dynamics spun out of MIT in 1992 and has had three owners in 30+ years: Google bought it in 2013, SoftBank took it in 2017, Hyundai took the controlling stake in 2021. Atlas backflip videos have spread widely; the quadruped Spot mostly sells to inspection and research customers. In the 2026 humanoid field, Figure’s founder said days ago its personal AI product Hark launches this week, and Tesla’s Optimus mass-production timeline gets asked about every quarter.