Google And AR Startup Magic Leap Announce New Partnership

Google and Magic Leap—the augmented reality startup founded in 2010—are building a strategic partnership to create immersive experiences. Magic Leap published a press release last week explaining that this new “multi-faceted, strategic technology partnership” will allow both companies to combine expertise and provide new solutions for the AR market.

“We look forward to bringing together Magic Leap’s leadership in optics and manufacturing with our technologies to bring a wider range of immersive experiences to market,” said Shahram Izadi, Vice President and General Manager of AR/XR at Google. “By combining efforts, we can foster the future of the XR ecosystem with unique and innovative product offerings.”

According to Reuters, Google is already an investor in the AR company—owned primarily by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund— and both companies refused to say whether this new partnership would aim to develop new AR devices for users or not.

During the last Google I/O event where Google announced major AI updates, the company showed a demo where users recognized smart glasses that looked like Google Glasses. However, it has not been confirmed if Google is building new devices, and it hasn’t been disclosed either if this new partnership will have a relation to the development of these products.

In the meantime, Magic Leap has shared the news on its social media channels and website along with the statements, without giving many details.

“This partnership accelerates the transformative power of AR by combining our extensive optics capabilities with Google’s technologies to continue to advance immersive experiences to the developer ecosystem and for customers,” said Julie Larson-Green, Magic Leap’s Chief Technology Officer. “We are looking forward to expanding the potential of XR – blending the physical world with valuable, contextually relevant solutions.”

Those curious to understand the goals and possible consequences of this new partnership will have to wait for new developments and announcements in the near future.