--- title: "Boston Dynamics Lays Off Human Employees, Says It’s “Burning Through Cash”" description: "Spot robot dog maker Boston Dynamics laid off five percent of its workforce while \"burning through cash\" at an unsustainable rate." date: "2024-12-17" modified: "2024-12-17" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/boston-dynamics-lays-off-human-employees" categories: - "Boston Dynamics" - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "boston dynamics" - "robot dogs" - "spotmini" - "the digest" --- # Boston Dynamics Lays Off Human Employees, Says It’s “Burning Through Cash” ![Spot robot dog maker Boston Dynamics laid off five percent of its workforce while "burning through cash" at an unsustainable rate.]() *\Image: Boston Dynamics\* ## Bot Profitable Boston Dynamics, the company behind the popular Spot robot dog, is in financial trouble. As the [*Boston Globe* reported]() last week, the company laid off 45 employees, accounting for about five percent of its workforce. The layoffs "affect nearly every function throughout the business," a spokesperson told the newspaper. "This decision was not made lightly," Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Player wrote in a note to employees that was candid about the company's business struggles, even after the immense media coverage its robots have garnered. "Our long-term outlook remains positive: Spot continues scaling steadily with industrial and government customers, Stretch is proving its value with logistics and retail players, and our R&D work on Atlas is progressing at an encouraging pace," he added, referring to the company's three main consumer robot offerings. "However, we are also burning through cash at a rate that exceeds our commercial progress to date, and we need to streamline our operations and production processes to support sustainable growth," Player wrote. "Today is about making a very difficult short-term decision in service of our longer-term strategy and profitability goals." ## Stretch Goal The company is also facing steadily growing competition, particularly when it comes to humanoid robots. Companies, including [Tesla](), [Agility Robotics](), and [Figure AI](), are all raising huge sums to bring similar robots to market. It's a surprising development given the popularity of the company's Spot robot. The quadruped has [been on sale since 2019](), and has since been deployed in a number of settings, from the [New York City Fire Department]() to [hospitals during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic](). More recently, a Spot robot dog was [spotted patrolling]() president-elect Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Boston Dynamics' Stretch, a [tall, robotic arm on wheels](), is [already making its way]() into autonomously operated warehouses to move heavy objects and perform other repetitive tasks. A recently announced and fully electric version of the company's humanoid Atlas robot is also set to go on sale soon, [according to an April update](). But given the latest news, Boston Dynamics is struggling to turn all that hype into a viable long-term business — which could be a canary in the coal mine for other companies looking to build sustainable businesses off robotics and AI right now. **More on Spot:** *[Robot Dog Spotted Guarding Mar-a-Lago]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()