HP buys Humane’s assets for $116M. AI Pins will stop working on Feb 28, 2025. Refunds are available for recent purchases.
Humane announced on Tuesday that HP had acquired most of its assets for $116 million. The hardware startup is immediately discontinuing sales of its $499 AI Pins. Humane alerted customers who have already purchased the Pin that their devices will stop functioning before the end of the month — at 12 p.m. PST on February 28, 2025, according to a blog post.
After that date, the company said its AI pins would no longer connect to Humane’s servers. The devices won’t be capable of calling, messaging, AI queries/responses, or cloud access. Humane advises AI Pin owners to immediately transfer their important photos and data to an external device.
Humane plans to dissolve its customer support team for the AI Pin on February 28. According to an FAQ, customers who bought an AI pin in the last 90 days are eligible for a refund, but anyone who bought a device before then is not.
The news ends the short-lived, buzzy hardware startup Humane. In April 2024, Humane made a splash by launching its AI Pin, which it positioned as a smartphone replacement. The Bay Area startup, founded by ex-Apple employees Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri, raised over $230 million to create the device.
However, Humane’s AI Pin disappointed many early reviewers and customers, creating a crisis for the company. According to reporting from The Verge, Humane’s returns for the AI Pin started outpacing its sales at one point last summer. Adding insult to injury, Humane also told customers to stop using the device’s charging case, citing battery fire concerns. In October, the company, which long charged customers $699 for its AI Pin, dropped the price by $200.
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According to a blog post announcing the acquisition, HP is acquiring Humane’s engineers and product managers. The Humane team will form the basis of a new group within HP called HP IQ, which is described as an “AI innovation lab focused on building an intelligent ecosystem across HP’s products and services for the future of work.”
HP will acquire some of Humane’s technology, including its CosmOS AI operating system. Humane recently showed an ad suggesting the AI operating system could run on a car’s entertainment system, a smart speaker, a TV, and an Android phone. This technology could integrate AI into HP’s personal computers and printers.
According to a Bloomberg report, Humane had sought to be acquired in May 2024 for a much higher price, between $750 million and $1 billion.
