Google, augmented reality startup Magic Leap strike partnership deal
The Hindu
Google and AR startup Magic Leap has signed a deal indicating that the big tech company could restart their AR/VR efforts.
Alphabet's Google and augmented reality startup Magic Leap are forming a strategic technology partnership and working on building immersive experiences that blend the physical and digital worlds.
Magic Leap said in a blog post on Thursday that the two companies have agreed to a partnership. A Google spokesperson confirmed the agreement.
While short on details, the announcement adds to signals that Google may be plotting a return to the market for augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies that it so far has largely yielded to rivals Meta and Apple. The partnership would combine Florida-based Magic Leap's expertise in optics and device manufacturing with Google's technology platforms, Magic Leap said.
"We've shipped a couple of different versions of augmented reality devices so far, so we're out there delivering things, and Google has a long history of platforms thinking," Magic Leap's Chief Technology Officer Julie Larson-Green told Reuters in an interview ahead of the announcement.
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"So we're thinking, putting our expertise and their expertise together, there's lots of things we could end up doing," she said.
Google is an investor in Magic Leap, which is majority owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. The startup was an early darling in the AR headset space, but struggled to find a consumer niche and more recently started exploring arrangements to license its technology or produce components for others. Magic Leap and Google both declined to say whether the partnership was expected to yield a consumer AR device. Google also has been collaborating with Samsung Electronics since early last year to develop mixed reality technologies, which the Google spokesman said was unchanged by the deal with Magic Leap. Larson-Green said she was especially eager to work with some of the "cool AI tie-ins" with augmented reality that Google announced at its annual developer conference earlier this month.
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