Boston Dynamics hands the Atlas era to an AI executive, Amazon's Rohit Prasad

Boston Dynamics has given its top job to an AI executive. Rohit Prasad, who was senior vice president and head scientist for Alexa and Artificial General Intelligence at Amazon, became chief executive on 7 October 2026, the company announced on 6 October. He succeeds Robert Playter, who stepped down as CEO in February, as Boston Dynamics starts Atlas with a few selected early customers.

What changed for buyers

The announcement gives no new price, date or delivery plan. Atlas remains on pre-order for businesses, with no public price, and Boston Dynamics has reserved all 2026 units for Hyundai and Google DeepMind; other customers are expected from early 2027.

Who Prasad is

According to Boston Dynamics, Prasad spent 12 years at Amazon, where he helped build Alexa from its earliest days and later led the development of the Amazon Nova foundation models. Before that, he spent nearly 14 years at Raytheon BBN Technologies, leading machine-learning research for US government and commercial use. He has been based in the Boston area for more than 25 years and, subject to approval, is expected to join the board.

What the company says it wants

The release frames the appointment around one idea, "Physical AI": combining Boston Dynamics' robots with advanced AI "to commercialize intelligent machines at scale". Jaehoon Chang, Vice Chair of Hyundai Motor Group and chair of Boston Dynamics' board, said the company's robotics, Prasad's ability "to turn AI into products at global scale" and Hyundai's manufacturing and logistics "give us a powerful foundation to build and scale Physical AI."

The parent's plans give that ambition a number. Hyundai said in January 2026, according to Reuters as published by The Economic Times, that it aims to build a factory able to make 30,000 robot units a year by 2028, when it plans to start deploying them across its manufacturing sites.

The company behind it

Hyundai took majority ownership of Boston Dynamics in 2021. Bloomberg, as published by BusinessLine (7 October 2026), reports that several top executives have left since Playter's departure, including Chief Technology Officer Aaron Saunders, and that Hyundai is moving to acquire SoftBank's remaining stake. Boston Dynamics' portfolio has three robots: Spot for inspection, Stretch for moving boxes, and Atlas.

Still unconfirmed

• Whether Atlas's price or delivery schedule changes under Prasad.
• When Prasad joins the board, which depends on an approval process.
• Who replaces the executives who have left.