Google Renews AR Ambitions with Ma…

Google has entered into a strategic partnership with once-popular augmented reality (AR) company Magic Leap to combine efforts to create immersive experiences, potentially increasing competition with rivals including Meta Platforms and Apple.

Magic Leap said it has agreed to work with Google to combine its optics and device manufacturing expertise with Google’s technology platforms, although details on what exactly the pair will work on remain undisclosed.

Google was one of many high-profile investors in Magic Leap, helping it reach a valuation of $6.4 billion in 2018. That same year, AR secured a partnership with AT&T so that the US carrier could offer its headsets.

However, poor sales led to layoffs and rumors of a potential sale before the company eventually restructured and focused on enterprise clients in 2020.

Its valuation then fell to $2 billion around the time the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund bought a controlling stake in the company.

For Google, the partnership with Magic Leap could reignite the company’s ambitions to develop AR and VR offerings after first launching its Google Glass smart glasses more than a decade ago.

Issues related to privacy and the overall design of the device led to an exit from the consumer market in 2015, and then Google abandoned the related enterprise play in 2023.

Since then, Meta Platforms has made significant moves in the space, and last year Apple unveiled the Vision Pro, its first product in this segment.

– said Julie Larson-Green, CTO of Magic Leap Reuters has so far delivered a different version of AR devices, “and Google has a long history of thinking about platforms.”