Alphabet is shutting down Loon, its division that provides internet from floating balloons, according to a post on the blog of Alphabet’s X moonshot division.
“The road to commercial viability has proven much longer and riskier than hoped,” Astro Teller, who leads X, wrote in the blog. “In the coming months, we’ll begin winding down operations and it will no longer be an Other Bet within Alphabet.”
In 2018, the project was spun off as a separate company called Loon LLC.
The issue, as Loon CEO Alistair Westgarth noted, is that “Loon has been chasing the hardest problem of all in connectivity the last billion users.” Loon tackled a series of “firsts” and solved many problems yet despite finding numerous partners along the way, they still haven’t found a way to get costs down to a level that is sustainable over the long-term.
Astro Teller, head of X, said a small group of the Loon team will be sticking around to ensure the project winds down smoothly and safely. Most of the other employees will be moving on, finding alternative roles at X, Alphabet, Google and elsewhere.
