In a blog post Thursday, Alastair Westgarth, CEO of Alphabet’s Project Loon, said: “We haven’t found a way to get the costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business. … Today, I’m sad to share that Loon will be winding down.”
Loon was part of Alphabet’s GOOGL, +0.22% GOOG, +0.23% “X” business unit, which experiments with moonshot projects. Two other X units — Makani, which used kites to generate wind energy, and Foghorn, a project to create clean fuel from ocean water — have also been abandoned in recent years. Westgarth said the cost of delivering internet service with existing technology to the most remote places “is just too expensive for everyday people,” adding “we haven’t found a way to get the costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business.”In a separate blog post Thursday, X chief Astro Teller said that while Loon is going away, it will give $10 million to support nonprofits and businesses focused on “connectivity, internet, entrepreneurship and education in Kenya.
Musk beat them with an actual endeavour that works and delivers results
Alphabet like, 'we want the most expensive option'
That’s unfortunate. Such a brilliant effort. Rip Loom. 🎈
Did they not realize there’s wind 💨?