Google Inc is making a big bet on augmented reality, leading a US$542 million investment in a shadowy startup called Magic Leap Inc, based in Dania Beach, Florida.
The investment, one of the largest ever made by Google, values Magic Leap at about US$2 billion, according to people briefed on the matter, but not authorized to discuss the deal publicly. Other investors in the round include Qualcomm Ventures, Legendary Entertainment, private equity firm KKR, Vulcan Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Andreessen Horowitz and Obvious Ventures.
Google’s role as the lead investor is significant. Just seven months ago, Facebook Inc stunned Silicon Valley with a US$2 billion acquisition of Oculus VR Inc, a virtual reality company. Facebook believes that Oculus can be a new sort of operating system as people continue to find new ways to interact with computers.
Google views Magic Leap in much the same way, according to people briefed on the company’s thinking. As people become more comfortable with wearable technology, technologies like Magic Leap — which superimposes animated digital imagery over what someone sees with the naked eye — is likely to become more commonplace.
Already, Google makes a similar technology on its own, Google Glass. Though nascent, Google Glass has attracted enthusiastic early adopters, who use the glasses — which have small computer displays embedded in the lenses — to do simple tasks like search the Internet, take photographs and send messages.
Magic Leap has broader ambitions. On its Web site, the little-known company outlines an ambitious vision for displaying rich interactive graphics alongside what people see naturally, using what it calls a “dynamic digitized lightfield signal.”
“Magic Leap is an eclectic group of visionaries, rocket scientists, wizards and gurus from the fields of film, robotics, visualization, software, computing and user experience,” the company says on its Web site.
As part of the deal, Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior vice president of Android, Chrome and Apps, will join the Magic Leap board.
“We are looking forward to Magic Leap’s next stage of growth, and to seeing how it will shape the future of visual computing,” Pichai said.
Qualcomm executive chairman Paul Jacobs and Google vice president of corporate development Don Harrison are to take observer roles on the board.
“We are excited and honored to have such an extraordinary group of investors to help us bring our vision and products to the world,” Magic Leap chief executive Rony Abovitz said.
“Magic Leap is going beyond the current perception of mobile computing, augmented reality and virtual reality. We are transcending all three and will revolutionize the way people communicate, purchase, learn, share and play,” Abovitz added.
SELL-OFF: Investors expect tariff-driven volatility as the local boarse reopens today, while analysts say government support and solid fundamentals would steady sentiment Local investors are bracing for a sharp market downturn today as the nation’s financial markets resume trading following a two-day closure for national holidays before the weekend, with sentiment rattled by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement. Trump’s unveiling of new “reciprocal tariffs” on Wednesday triggered a sell-off in global markets, with the FTSE Taiwan Index Futures — a benchmark for Taiwanese equities traded in Singapore — tumbling 9.2 percent over the past two sessions. Meanwhile, the American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the TAIEX, plunged 13.8 percent in
A wave of stop-loss selling and panic selling hit Taiwan's stock market at its opening today, with the weighted index plunging 2,086 points — a drop of more than 9.7 percent — marking the largest intraday point and percentage loss on record. The index bottomed out at 19,212.02, while futures were locked limit-down, with more than 1,000 stocks hitting their daily drop limit. Three heavyweight stocks — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn, 鴻海精密) and MediaTek (聯發科) — hit their limit-down prices as soon as the market opened, falling to NT$848 (US$25.54), NT$138.5 and NT$1,295 respectively. TSMC's
ASML Holding NV, the sole producer of the most advanced machines used in semiconductor manufacturing, said geopolitical tensions are harming innovation a day after US President Donald Trump levied massive tariffs that promise to disrupt trade flows across the entire world. “Our industry has been built basically on the ability of people to work together, to innovate together,” ASML chief executive officer Christophe Fouquet said in a recorded message at a Thursday industry event in the Netherlands. Export controls and increasing geopolitical tensions challenge that collaboration, he said, without specifically addressing the new US tariffs. Tech executives in the EU, which is
In a small town in Paraguay, a showdown is brewing between traditional producers of yerba mate, a bitter herbal tea popular across South America, and miners of a shinier treasure: gold. A rush for the precious metal is pitting mate growers and indigenous groups against the expanding operations of small-scale miners who, until recently, were their neighbors, not nemeses. “They [the miners] have destroyed everything... The canals, springs, swamps,” said Vidal Britez, president of the Yerba Mate Producers’ Association of the town of Paso Yobai, about 210km east of capital Asuncion. “You can see the pollution from the dead fish.
RSS