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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday February 23 2020, @01:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the go-fly-a-kite dept.

Google parent pulls the plug on power-generating kite project:

Google-parent Alphabet is shutting down its power-generating kites company Makani, the first closure of a so-called moonshot project since founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin stepped back from management in December.

Sundar Pichai, who took over as Alphabet chief executive, is under pressure to stem losses from the company's "Other Bets" segment, which includes endeavors such as self-driving cars and Internet-providing balloons. Other Bets lost $4.8 billion last year—widening from a $3.4 billion loss in 2018.

Makani was acquired in 2013 and taken into the experimental "X" lab. It was developing airborne wind turbines that could be tethered to floating buoys, removing the need for the expensive ocean bed structures needed to support permanent turbines.

"It's been a very hard choice for us," said Astro Teller, chief executive of X, speaking to the Financial Times on Tuesday.

"Our estimate of the rewards for the world, the reward to Alphabet, and the risks and costs to get there... they change over time. It's part of my job to assess that and make sure that we're picking the best ones we can for Alphabet to spend its money on."

Alphabet would not confirm the size of Makani, only saying it consisted of "dozens" of employees that it hoped it could be reassigned to other climate change-related work at Alphabet. A small team will stay on for a few months to collate Makani's research.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 23 2020, @04:33AM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Sunday February 23 2020, @04:33AM (#961295) Journal

    Adjust for inflation:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program [wikipedia.org]

    $25.4 billion (1973)
    $153 billion (2018)

    That counts everything up to Apollo 17. You can subtract some if Apollo 11 is all you care about.

    Google X is intended to create new revenue streams. Even Google can't dump in tens or hundreds of billions without any expectation of return.

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  • (Score: 2, Disagree) by barbara hudson on Sunday February 23 2020, @03:31PM

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Sunday February 23 2020, @03:31PM (#961404) Journal
    Doesn't change the facts. The total cost was $25 billion, not $100 billion. People reading the $100 billion figure may think that since it doesn't say its "adjusted for inflation ", that the inflation adjusted amount would be half a trillion or more. And if they use THAT figure, citing it without saying it's "adjusted for inflation (erroneously), another reader can make the same mistake again and say it was "really several trillions ".
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