HP to acquire parts of Humane, Ai Pin startup from ex-Apple managers, for US$116 million

HP WILL acquire assets from Humane, the maker of a wearable Ai Pin introduced in late 2023, for US$116 million.

The deal will include the majority of Humane’s employees in addition to its software platform and intellectual property, the company said on Tuesday (Feb 18). It will not include Humane’s Ai Pin device business, which will be wound down, an HP spokesperson said.

Humane’s team, including founders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, will form a new division at HP to help integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into the company’s personal computers, printers and connected conference rooms, said Tuan Tran, who leads HP’s AI initiatives. Chaudhri and Bongiorno were design and software engineers at Apple before founding the startup.

In April 2024, Humane launched a much-hyped wearable device meant to allow users to access AI models, calls, and texts via voice or gesture. The startup pitched the Ai Pin as an eventual smartphone replacement.

But the device met a cascade of negative reviews, reports of glitches and a “quality issue” that led to a risk of fire. The startup had raised over US$230 million and counted backers such as Salesforce chief executive officer Marc Benioff.

Humane had been seeking a buyer for the business as early as May 2024, when it sought a price of US$750 million to US$1 billion.

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Tran said he was particularly impressed with aspects of Humane’s design, such as the ability to orchestrate AI models running both on-device and in the cloud. The deal is expected to close at the end of the month, HP said.

A few months ago, Humane backed away from its hardware focus, instead re-branding around what it called Cosmos, an AI operating system for a slew of devices in the home and on-the-go. The software, the company said, had a new type of architecture built around AI agents. HP could use this underlying technology to help power is own future devices.

HP has touted cost, security and speed as benefits of delivering some generative AI features locally, rather than through the cloud. Last year it launched a line of computers with semiconductors optimised for on-device AI.

“There will be a time and place for pure AI devices,” Tran said. “But there is going to be AI in all our devices – that’s how we can help our business customers be more productive.” BLOOMBERG