In 1986, Steve Jobs bought a computer graphics company that had been posting losses year after year for $10 million. It was followed by ridicule: "Who would pay money to watch a feature-length animation made by computers?" The company, which he named "Pixar," continued to run losses, and after Jobs was ousted from Apple, he poured in another $50 million he had on hand. Nine years later, Pixar unveiled the world's first feature-length computer animation, "Toy Story." Only then did people call Pixar innovation. But the innovation did not begin on the day the film opened. It had already begun the moment he kept believing in the future and did not stop investing, even as the losses continued.
Recently, there has been much talk surrounding Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung's additional acquisition of a stake in Boston Dynamics. In the process of acquiring the shares that SoftBank put up by exercising its put option, the issue of "usurpation of corporate opportunity" under commercial law has been raised. The argument is that Chairman Chung personally is taking an opportunity that belonged to an affiliate. But even in 2021, when the acquisition of Boston Dynamics was assessed as "Hyundai Motor's dangerous gamble," Chairman Chung invested his own money and continued to participate in the financing afterward. While some are even drawing the issue of Hyundai Motor Group's governance restructuring into this stake acquisition, Chairman Chung has, in effect, taken on more of the risk burden for the future rather than pulling his hands out of the losses.
At halftime of the round-of-16 match between Brazil and Norway at the World Cup in North and Central America on the 5th of this month, Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot Atlas appeared on the field, handing the ball to the referee. It was the moment a physical artificial intelligence (AI) robot from the laboratory walked out into the middle of a festival for people around the world. Just as Toy Story announced Pixar's potential to the world, Atlas showed that Boston Dynamics' future is no longer just imagination.
The market has many scales to measure a company's value today, but scales to weigh the future that has not yet come are rare. Just as Jobs believed in Pixar's potential and waited for Toy Story, Atlas too is the product of long investment and patience. Just as Toy Story proved Pixar's time, Atlas is now proving Boston Dynamics' time.
