Humane announced on Tuesday that it has been acquired by HP for $116 million. The hardware startup is immediately discontinuing sales of its $499 AI Pins. Humane alerted customers who have already purchased the Pin that their devices will stop functioning before the end of the month — at 12 PM PST on February 28, 2025, according to a blog post.
After that date, the company says its AI Pins will no longer connect to Humane’s servers. The devices won’t be capable of calling, messaging, AI queries/responses, or cloud access. Humane is advising AI Pin owners to transfer their important photos and data to an external device immediately.
Humane says it will also dissolve its customer support team for the AI Pin on February 28.
The news brings an end to the short, buzzy hardware startup. Humane made a splash in April 2024 by launching its AI Pin, which it positioned as a smartphone replacement. The Bay Area startup, founded by ex-Apple employees Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri, raised more than $230 million to create the device.
However, Humane’s AI Pin disappointed many early reviewers and customers, creating a crisis for the company. At one point last summer, Humane’s returns for the AI Pin started outpacing its sales, according to reporting from The Verge. Adding insult to injury, Humane also told customers to stop using the device’s charging case, citing battery fire concerns. In October, the company dropped the price of its AI Pins by $200.
HP is acquiring Humane’s engineers and product managers, according to a blog post announcing the acquisition. The Humane team will form the basis of a new group within HP called HP IQ, which it describes as an “AI innovation lab focused on building an intelligent ecosystem across HP’s products and services for the future of work.”
HP will also acquire some of Humane’s technology, including its CosmOS AI operating system. Humane recently showed an ad suggesting the AI operating system could run on a car’s entertainment system, a smart speaker, a TV, and an Android phone.
Humane had sought to be acquired in May of 2024 for a much higher price, between $750 million and $1 billion, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Humane did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
This is a developing story…