Magic Leap

Magic Leap is a producer of AR headsets focused on enterprise applications of AR. The company’s flagship device is the enterprise-focused Magic Leap 2 which was soft-launched in January 2022 and commercialized in October 2022. The company claimed that this was the lightest and most portable device built at the time (weighing 260 grams). In July 2024, the company laid off ~75 of its employees, including its entire sales and marketing teams. This came as part of a restructuring initiative aimed at pivoting toward licensing the optical technology that underlies its headset to third parties.

Notable features of the Magic Leap 2 include its ‘dynamic dimming’ tech, making AR content more legible across different lighting conditions, a 70° field of view (FOV) and persistent spatial mapping features. The company generates revenue through sales of the device, available in three editions (Base, Developer Pro and Enterprise), priced between USD 3,299–4,999. 

In October 2023, the company released its version 1.4.0 update for its Magic Leap 2 headset, which aimed to bolster the device's core capabilities, such as hand-tracking accuracy and positional tracking. Previously, the company announced OpenXR support for its Magic Leap 2 headset in April 2023, allowing for developers to transition existing VR solutions to be used on the headset, without the need for further optimization.

The company also developed the Magic Leap 1 (launched in 2018, and set to discontinue functionality for it by end 2024), priced at USD 2,295-2,995.

As of January 2024, the company had exposure in the health, manufacturing, oil and gas, and transport sectors. It also caters to the defense and public sectors where it provides solutions for federal, state, local, and international government agencies. The company holds an extensive patent portfolio (1,900+) which includes the calibration of AR devices and object interactivity in virtual space.

The company, which was initially focused on consumer AR and faced bankruptcy in 2020, replaced its CEO and shifted its focus toward the enterprise segment in October 2020 due to its failure to capture market share in the consumer space and negative impacts from Covid-19. Magic Leap had used an acquisitions-based strategy to build its tech stack and bring technical talent in-house. Its most recent acquisitions included 1) Belgian startup Mimesys (May 2019) that was working on holographic teleconferencing software and 2) Computes, a mesh computing platform (these leverage the power of grouped systems to push resources to the devices that need it most) in October 2018.

Key customers and partnerships

Notable partnerships include that with

1) Google to launch new AR solutions and experiences (May 2024)

2) Mercedes-Benz to incorporate the Magic Leap 2 AR glasses in the Vision One-Eleven concept car for a configurable, immersive AR interface between the driver and the vehicle (July 2023).

3) Audi to incorporate the Magic Leap 2 AR headset in the Audi Activesphere concept car for immersive driving experiences (April 2023).

4) IT and software development company Globant to use the technical expertise of Globant to tailor its software solutions to enterprise customers (May 2022).

5) Cloud computing company VMWare to improve the deployment of its device for remote training and frontline worker use cases (October 2021).

6) AMD to incorporate a semi-custom system-on-a-chip (SOC, an integrated circuit that combines all or most components of a computer) for its latest AR device (June 2021)