Skip to main content

Why are people still giving Magic Leap money?

If Magic Leap fails, the skeptics will at least have to admire the AR startup’s keen ability to raise vast amounts of capital.

The company announced today that it has locked down another $280 million in a deal with Japan’s largest mobile operator, Docomo. The deal brings the company’s ever-swelling total cash raised to $2.6 billion. The deal follows an investment from AT&T last year also focused on the company’s cloud ambitions.

“DOCOMO aims to co-create advanced MR services and expand the XR market by leveraging open innovation and combining innovative technologies such as Spatial Computing provided by Magic Leap with DOCOMO’s assets including our 5G network and 70 million membership base,” Docomo CEO Kazuhiro Yoshizawa said in a press release.

This new money arrives as the company devotes more attention to the “Magicverse,” its plan for a spatially mapped digital infrastructure layer that can be a foundational step for cloud AR experiences. Magic Leap probably makes more sense as a cloud platform play over a hardware play, given where the market is, but it really isn’t clear what their advantages are compared to cloud incumbents like Microsoft, Amazon or Google with teams also focused on AR/VR.

Sure, they’ve partnered with these telecoms for 5G, but it’s unclear what those high-profile-conscious couplings do for Magic Leap if their hardware hopes (and the broader market they fit into) are far, far less-realized than 5G tech even is.

The company has just sunk so much money into its hardware, and their business there might not end up looking markedly different than Facebook’s Oculus (i.e. a slowly filling money pit) if the startup continues in its ambitions as a consumer company. The company’s sole product, the Magic Leap One, retails for $2,295.

Magic Leap and other AR startups have a rough 2019 ahead of them

In the early days, the hardware Magic Leap was pursuing was unprecedented, but reality got in the way. Now, the differences between what they’ve built and what competitors like Microsoft have are minimal, though while the HoloLens is largely a forward-thinking enterprise vehicle for Microsoft’s Azure cloud services, Magic Leap is stuck courting VR game developers to devote time and money to building artistic mini-games for a platform with a sliver of the users of the already niche virtual reality market.

Magic Leap tried to win a $480 million AR military contract, but it was awarded to Microsoft.

Facebook devoted hundreds of millions to funding game development grants; surely there’s a better place for Magic Leap to put investor cash than directly into content plays, but there aren’t many shortcuts to scaling a wholly consumer release without getting this infrastructure in place first.

What pays the bills in the meantime? I guess Docomo, this time.



from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2J4bYHf
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Silent Revolution of On-Device AI: Why the Cloud Is No Longer King

Introduction For years, artificial intelligence has meant one thing: the cloud. Whether you’re asking ChatGPT a question, editing a photo with AI tools, or getting recommendations on Netflix — those decisions happen on distant servers, not your device. But that’s changing. Thanks to major advances in silicon, model compression, and memory architecture, AI is quietly migrating from giant data centres to the palm of your hand. Your phone, your laptop, your smartwatch — all are becoming AI engines in their own right. It’s a shift that redefines not just how AI works, but who controls it, how private it is, and what it can do for you. This article explores the rise of on-device AI — how it works, why it matters, and why the cloud’s days as the centre of the AI universe might be numbered. What Is On-Device AI? On-device AI refers to machine learning models that run locally on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or edge device — without needing constant access to the cloud. In practi...
1 comment
Read more

Apple’s AI Push: Everything We Know About Apple Intelligence So Far

Apple’s WWDC 2025 confirmed what many suspected: Apple is finally making a serious leap into artificial intelligence. Dubbed “Apple Intelligence,” the suite of AI-powered tools, enhancements, and integrations marks the company’s biggest software evolution in a decade. But unlike competitors racing to plug AI into everything, Apple is taking a slower, more deliberate approach — one rooted in privacy, on-device processing, and ecosystem synergy. If you’re wondering what Apple Intelligence actually is, how it works, and what it means for your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you’re in the right place. This article breaks it all down.   What Is Apple Intelligence? Let’s get the terminology clear first. Apple Intelligence isn’t a product — it’s a platform. It’s not just a chatbot. It’s a system-wide integration of generative AI, machine learning, and personal context awareness, embedded across Apple’s OS platforms. Think of it as a foundational AI layer stitched into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and m...
Post a Comment
Read more

Max Q: Anomalous

Hello and welcome back to Max Q! Last week wasn’t the most successful for spaceflight missions. We’ll get into that a bit more below. In this issue: First up, a botched launch from Virgin Orbit… …followed by one from ABL Space Systems News from Rocket Lab, World View and more Virgin Orbit’s botched launch highlights shaky financial future After Virgin Orbit’s launch failure last Monday, during which the mission experienced an  “anomaly” that prevented the rocket from reaching orbit, I went back over the company’s financials — and things aren’t looking good. For Virgin Orbit, this year has likely been completely turned on its head. The company was aiming for three launches this year, but everything will remain grounded until the cause of the anomaly has been identified and resolved. It’s unclear how long that will take, but likely at least three months. Add this delay to Virgin’s dwindling cash reserves and you have a foundation that’s suddenly much shakier than before. ...
Post a Comment
Read more