Google has just backed the Magic Leap and behind them on augmented reality startup shrouded in mystery. An ambitious, stealthy startup recruits Google, Qualcomm, and VC and Hollywood A-listers to build next-gen augmented reality and has funded Magic Leap to the tune of $542 million.
According to The New York Times, that puts the startup’s value at a whopping $2 billion, even though we still don’t know much about the product it’s developing.
Magic Leap’s technology goes well beyond virtual or augmented reality and can superimpose objects that truly look real onto the world, using something called dynamic digitized lightfield signal. Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull (who has already spent time with the product) even described the startup’s technology as “so badass” to Fast Company, adding that it is “a marker of the future.” Magic Leap will use the money from the latest funding round to accelerate development, in order to launch its product in the near future.
The group, a consortium of some of the biggest names in venture capital and private equity, are all betting big money on an eclectic group of visionaries, rocket scientists, wizards and gurus from the fields of film, robotics, visualization, software, computing and user experience, as Magic Leap describes itself on its website.
And even if Magic Leap or Oculus does create a compelling new computing platform, the next challenge will be convincing media and tech companies to create lots of content to keep users entertained.
Virtual reality has been around for 20 years, and the one thing that has been consistent throughout this is that the technology is not mature enough, Mr. Blau said. Today theres the possibility for that to change, but its going to take a while for these app developers to get it right.
