{"id":615879,"date":"2025-12-06T12:07:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T12:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/615879\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T12:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T12:07:12","slug":"meta-buys-ai-pendant-start-up-limitless-to-expand-hardware-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/615879\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta buys AI pendant start-up Limitless to expand hardware push"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

Meta has bought Limitless, a maker of artificial intelligence-powered pendants, moving into the emerging but contentious market for all-hearing devices as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg doubles down on his bet on such wearables.<\/p>\n

Limitless, backed by venture capital group Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI\u2019s CEO Sam Altman, makes an AI-powered device that can be worn as a necklace or clipped on to clothing such as a brooch.<\/p>\n

Meta\u2019s efforts to build AI wearables have been focused on smart glasses, which Zuckerberg has said could replace the smartphone as the main device people use to access AI<\/a> tools including translation or chatbots. <\/p>\n

The acquisition indicates Zuckerberg is exploring other types of devices.<\/p>\n

The news comes as Meta\u2019s CEO this week has signalled the importance of wearables to the company\u2019s broader push to develop \u201cpersonal superintelligence\u201d that he hopes will be smarter than humans.<\/p>\n

Limitless on Friday said: \u201cMeta<\/a> recently announced a new vision to bring personal superintelligence to everyone and a key part of that vision is building incredible AI-enabled wearables. We share this vision and we\u2019ll be joining Meta to help bring our shared vision to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zuckerberg on Wednesday announced the company was building a new design studio within its virtual and augmented reality department, Reality Labs, poaching Alan Dye<\/a>, a top Apple design executive, to lead the group. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re entering a new era where AI glasses and other devices will change how we connect with technology and each other,\u201d Zuckerberg said of the effort.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A day later, the company said it was shifting some resources from its metaverse<\/a> group to focus on AI wearables such as smart glasses. Investors welcomed the news, sending the shares up nearly 3.5 per cent.<\/p>\n

Meta is entering a nascent but increasingly crowded market among those experimenting in AI devices beyond glasses. <\/p>\n

OpenAI has teamed up with Jony Ive, formerly Apple\u2019s star designer. Their secretive team is working on a palm-sized device without a screen that can respond to audio and visual cues from users and their environment.<\/p>\n

This category of always-on listening devices has become controversial because of privacy concerns.<\/p>\n

Silicon Valley start-up Friend, maker of a device worn as a pendant around the neck that lets a person chat with an AI bot, has been criticised for being \u201ccreepy\u201d and having a \u201csnarky\u201d personality. <\/p>\n

An AI pin made by Altman-backed Humane was recently scrapped after widespread glitches. Over the summer, Amazon acquired AI bracelet start-up Bee.<\/p>\n

Limitless pendants can record and transcribe conversations in real time, and allow users to search that information via the company\u2019s app. Formerly known as Rewind, the start-up pitched the product as using AI to \u201covercome the brain\u2019s limitations\u201d in areas such as focus and memory.<\/p>\n

The company, which has raised more than $33mn from investors, said it would continue to support existing customers of its Pendant product for at least a year but would no longer be selling to new customers. <\/p>\n

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Limitless\u2019s last public valuation was $367mn in 2023, according to PitchBook.<\/p>\n

Meta said: \u2018We\u2019re excited that Limitless will be joining Meta to help accelerate our work to build AI-enabled wearables.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Cristina Criddle in San Francisco<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3163],"tags":[323,1942,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-615879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-technology","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115672543582996869","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}