HP to buy Humane, manufacturer of the Ayoner of AI, for $ 116 million

Humane, the ambitious new company behind the ai ​​Pin device that aimed at one day replacing smartphones, agreed to sell parts of its business to HP for $ 116 million, companies said on Tuesday.

HP said he planned to acquire the “ai capacities of Humane, including her software platform, intellectual property, patents and some employees. PIN ai will close, Humane said in a message to customers.

The agreement limits the fall for the new high -flight company, which largely promoted the $ 699 PIN with ads, a TED talk and in the Paris Fashion Week with supermodels. Humane raised $ 240 million in high -profile investors funds, including Marc Benioff, the executive director of Salesforce, and his counterpart in Operai, Sam Altman, valuing the company at $ 850 million before he publishes a product.

Humane was created by Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, founders of husband and wife who previously worked in Apple. The couple imagined a portable device that people would hold on to their clothes and interact with the use of voice commands and a laser screen projected in their hand. The idea was to reduce the time dedicated to looking at smartphone screens.

But the ai ​​pin, which began to send the past spring to customers, was a failure.

The reviewers criticized the product, with the ai ​​software often giving incorrect answers or taking a lot of time to respond, while the PIN batteries are sometimes overheat. Humane expected to sell 100,000 pins in its first year, but only received around 10,000 orders. At one point, the company told customers to stop using their load cases due to fire risk.

Last year, Humane hired an investment bank to sell, while looking for new funds. The new company sought a sale price of more than $ 1 billion.

Tuesday, <a target="_blank" class="css-yywogo" href="https://support.humane.com/hc/en-us/articles/34374173951373-Important-Update-for-Consumer-ai-Pin-Customers” title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>A letter Published on the Humane website said that the pins would no longer work at the end of this month and that the client data would be eliminated. “Our commercial priorities have changed,” said the letter.

HP, who sells approximately 53 million pieces a year, has said he wants to add abilities to his laptops to be more useful. Last year, HP worked with Microsoft to develop an ai Copilot+ PCs computers line.

In his announcement, HP said he would use Humane technology to become a “company directed by experience.” Humane workers will be part of a new innovation laboratory called HP IQ, which will focus on “building an intelligent ecosystem in HP products and services.” Mr. Chaudhri and Mrs. Bongiorno will join the company, as well as most new company employees, an HP spokeswoman said.

“We are investing and aggressively innovating in new capabilities and software promoted by ai,” said Enrique Lores, president and executive director of HP, during a call with analysts in November. “We will focus on delivering an avant -garde technology with ai.”