Hyundai Mobis starts Atlas actuator prototypes in November and expects supply in 2028

From November, Hyundai Mobis will build prototype joint actuators for Boston Dynamics' Atlas at its Uiwang research center in Gyeonggi Province. The company disclosed the plan on its third-quarter earnings call on Oct. 30, Seoul time, and said it will test the parts' performance and reliability with Boston Dynamics ahead of a supply date it expects in 2028, Yonhap reported.

The prototypes come late in a tight schedule. Three days earlier, Korea Economic Daily reported that the Hyundai-owned robot maker had told its Korean suppliers to prepare parts for 10,000 Atlas humanoids by the end of next year, with Mobis making the actuators and hand grippers (our report). Counting from November, that leaves about 14 months for the most expensive part on the list to go from first prototype to volume: Yonhap puts actuators at about 60% of a humanoid's material cost. The 2028 supply date itself fits the plan for the robots. Hyundai wants Atlas sequencing parts at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Georgia from 2028 and assembling them from 2030, according to Yonhap, and Boston Dynamics plans to build 30,000 robots from 2028, Korea Economic Daily reported.

Mobis wants more humanoid customers than Atlas

Mobis also said it will go beyond the actuators it has already won and develop hand grippers, perception modules and controllers, so that it can sell to a range of humanoid makers. It plans a new unit for robot components and expects to roughly double the staff working on them, ZDNet Korea reported. Financial News described the aim as reducing reliance on any one customer. Mobis's first robot buyer is a sister company inside Hyundai Motor Group; a lineup aimed at other humanoid makers is the clearest sign it sees robot parts as a business of its own.

Car parts are paying for it

The robot push sits on a stronger car business. Mobis reported third-quarter revenue of 15.7233 trillion won, up 4.6% from a year earlier, and operating profit of 914.1 billion won, up 17.2%, on higher sales of electric-vehicle parts in Europe; net profit fell 35.7% to 598.4 billion won. "We expect annual R&D investment to exceed 2 trillion won for the first time by the end of this year," a company representative said, according to Financial News.