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.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day