Marc Raibert

In 1973 he graduated from Northeastern University with a BS in electrical engineering.⁠[1]

As an undergraduate he worked on co-op assignments at IBM and in Northeastern’s Department of Psychology; he recalled, “I’m a hands-on guy.”⁠[2]

He has described himself as a builder from a young age: his father had wanted to be an aerospace engineer but became an accountant after his own mother objected, and the family basement was full of tools and electronics. In 1974, as an MIT graduate student, he followed Berthold Horn back to his lab and saw a robot arm taken apart into about a thousand pieces; “from that day on, I was a roboticist.”⁠[3]

In 1977 he received a PhD from MIT’s Department of Psychology with the thesis “Motor control and learning by the state space model,” supervised by Berthold K. P. Horn and Whitman A. Richards.⁠[4]

He was an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University from 1980 to 1986 and a professor at MIT from 1986 to 1995. At both institutions he founded and led the Leg Laboratory, which helped establish the scientific basis for highly dynamic robots.⁠[5]

In June 1984 he, M. A. Chepponis and H. Benjamin Brown published a paper in the International Journal of Robotics Research extending one-legged hopping balance, earlier achieved only for machines restricted to a plane, to a free-standing 3D machine.⁠[6]

In 1986 MIT Press published his book Legged Robots That Balance; the Computer History Museum holds a copy signed by the author.⁠[7]

In 1992 he left MIT and founded Boston Dynamics, initially to develop simulation software.⁠[8]

Boston Dynamics grew out of his university Leg Lab; his co-founders were Nancy Cornelius, the first employee, and Robert PlayterRobert PlayterRobert Playter is a robotics engineer and executive. A doctoral student of Marc Raibert at MIT’s Leg Lab, he joined Boston Dynamics in 1994 and served as its chief executive from fall 2019 to February 2026, leading the launch of commercial robots including Spot, Stretch and the electric Atlas.Open the full entry, later chief executive.⁠[9]

He has been a member of the National Academy of Engineering since 2008. In 2016 he gave an invited talk titled “Dynamic Legged Robots” at the NIPS conference, reporting on Boston Dynamics’ work on mobile manipulation robots.⁠[10]

In December 2013 GoogleGoogleGoogle is an American technology company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and incorporated in 1998. It became an Alphabet subsidiary in 2015. Its businesses include internet search, advertising, software platforms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.Open the full entry acquired Boston Dynamics. By then the company had built BigDog, a St. Bernard-sized quadruped, the Atlas humanoid for a DARPA challenge, and WildCat, which could outrun a person; most of these robots were funded largely by the military.⁠[8]

On June 9, 2017, SoftBank GroupSoftBank GroupSoftBank Group (SoftBank Group Corp.) is an investment holding company headquartered in Tokyo, founded by Masayoshi Son in 1981. Starting out as a distributor of personal computer software, it moved into the internet, broadband and mobile communications, and has since become an investment group centered on AI-related assets such as Arm, the SoftBank Vision Funds and OpenAI.Open the full entry announced a definitive agreement to acquire Boston Dynamics from Alphabet. As chief executive, he said the company shared the belief that “advances in technology should be for the benefit of humanity.”⁠[11]

In late 2019 he handed the chief executive role to Robert Playter and became chairman. He explained: “SoftBank promoted me to chairman so that I could focus on the long-term direction.”⁠[12]

On June 21, 2021, Hyundai Motor Group completed its acquisition of Boston Dynamics, taking an 80 percent stake in a deal that valued the company at US$1.1 billion; SoftBank kept the remaining 20 percent through an affiliate.⁠[13]

He received a 2022 Engelberger Robotics Award in the technology category, presented at the Automate 2022 dinner in Detroit on June 8, 2022; the announcement described him as Boston Dynamics’ founder, former CEO and chairman.⁠[14]

On August 12, 2022, Hyundai Motor Group announced the Boston Dynamics AI Institute, with him as executive director, headquartered in Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and an initial investment of more than $400 million from the group and Boston Dynamics; its focus areas were cognitive AI, athletic AI, organic hardware design, and ethics and policy.⁠[15]

He said his strength lay in long-range thinking—“My long suit is to dream, and to do the long-term stuff”—and that the institute should be “more open and more available” than Boston Dynamics.⁠[16]

On February 16, 2024, he appeared on episode 412 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, introduced as founder and longtime CEO of Boston Dynamics and executive director of the new AI Institute; topics included early robots, legged robots, BigDog, hydraulic actuation, the Leg Lab, the AI Institute, athletic intelligence, dancing robots, Tesla’s Optimus and the future of robotics.⁠[17]

In 2024 he gave the keynote address at Northeastern University’s College of Engineering undergraduate celebration, listed as executive director of The AI Institute and founder of Boston Dynamics.⁠[1]

On September 13, 2024, he spoke at Boston University on “Making Robots Smarter in Body and Mind,” focusing on plans to improve both the physical and cognitive abilities of future robots, to an audience of more than 100.⁠[18]

On February 5, 2025, Boston Dynamics announced a partnership with the Robotics & AI Institute he leads, earlier known as The Boston Dynamics AI Institute, to bring improved reinforcement learning to the electric Atlas humanoid.⁠[19]

In a September 2025 podcast interview he said having Boston Dynamics in the institute’s name “caused confusion” and that he “thought it was better if we had our own identity.” The episode said he was exploring physical AI, general-purpose robotics and the occasional guitar tube amplifier.⁠[20]

As of October 2026, the RAI Institute’s website says it is led by him, with its main campus in Kendall Square, Cambridge, and an office in Zurich, and that it aims to make robots “smarter, more agile and dexterous, and generally easier to use.”⁠[21]

RAI Institute: Official website: https://rai-inst.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[22]

Boston Dynamics: Official website: https://bostondynamics.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[17]