Google has agreed to acquire part of HTC's extended-reality (XR) business for $250 million, expanding its push into virtual and augmented reality hardware The deal involves transferring some of the HTC VIVE engineering staff to Google and granting non-exclusive IP rights.

Samsung’s TM Roh has been hyping up Android XR in a recent interview, and made comments which suggest that Google is aware of the importance of building a solid software backing for its fledgling platform. If these words translate into action then Android XR could be the first real rival to Horizon OS.

Taiwan's HTC said on Thursday it will sell part of its extended reality (XR) unit to Google for $250 million, with some members of the Taiwanese company joining the U.S. one. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of this year,