Hardware startup Humane recently announced that most of its assets have been acquired by HP for $116 million. The deal marks the end of Humane's independent operations, and also means a major turning point in the fate of its iconic product, AI Pin. The company said it will immediately stop selling the $499 device and plans to completely terminate support for existing devices on February 28, 2025.
In the official blog, Humane details the future fate of AI Pin. Starting from February 28, 2025, AI Pin will no longer be able to connect to the server, and users will be unable to make calls, send messages, use AI query capabilities, or access any cloud services. The company recommends that users transfer important data to external devices as soon as possible to avoid data loss. In addition, AI Pin’s customer support team will also be disbanded on the same day, which means that users will not be able to obtain any official technical support.
Humane was co-founded by former Apple employees Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri, and has received more than $230 million in funding. The company launched the AI Pin in April 2024, a device designed as a replacement for smartphones to transform people's daily lives with innovative AI technologies. However, despite the initial attention, the market performance of AI Pin is far from meeting expectations. Early reviews and user feedback generally believe that this device has many shortcomings in functionality, performance and user experience.
According to reports, AI Pin's sales have been unsatisfactory, and even last summer there was an embarrassing situation where returns exceeded sales. In addition, the company also asked users to stop using charging boxes due to the risk of battery fire, and cut the price of AI Pin by $200 in October 2024, trying to boost sales by reducing prices. However, these measures failed to turn the situation around, which eventually led to the company's sale.
According to the acquisition announcement, HP will absorb Humane’s engineers and product managers to form a new team called HP IQ to focus on building an AI product and service ecosystem. HP will also acquire some of Humane's technology, including its CosmOS AI operating system. The operating system, once shown to run on automotive entertainment systems, smart speakers, TVs and Android phones, will be integrated into HP's personal computers and printers in the future to enhance the intelligence of its products.
It is worth mentioning that Bloomberg has previously reported that Humane sought to sell for $750 million to $1 billion in May 2024. However, the final transaction price was only $116 million, which is much lower than the previous valuation. This result reflects the downturn in AI Pin market performance and investors' cautious attitude towards Humane's future prospects.