Boston Dynamics sold to Japan’s SoftBank in 2017.

The expansion of Boston Dynamics’ ambitions comes about a year after what could be seen as a setback. After being acquired by Google in 2013, the search giant sold the robot maker to Japan’s SoftBank in 2017. That decision seems to have been driven by uncertainty that Boston Dynamics could produce a marketable product, at a moment when Google was taking a more results-oriented stance toward its more speculative projects.