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IslandChillin t1_j23g9js wrote

450M is like nothing to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi portfolio is getting ridiculous tbh

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Pokerhobo t1_j23m4h1 wrote

They know that oil is limited, so they are doing whatever they can to have a future.

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Zhukov-74 t1_j23qy1x wrote

>so they are doing whatever they can to have a future.

If only some other countries had such foresight.

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bicameral_mind t1_j25dh55 wrote

It's easy when nearly all wealth is concentrated in the hands of one ruling family, effectively one person. Nothing pesky like disagreement or conflict of interest getting in the way like democratic governance. We aren't really talking about a 'country' here.

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HolyAndOblivious t1_j265i31 wrote

Some regimes do have a benefit.

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Test19s t1_j26djpi wrote

Until an absolute turkey of a leader takes power. Look at Xi Jinping for an example.

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HolyAndOblivious t1_j26eg76 wrote

I know this is gonna sound weird. The Chinese way of "electing" leaders seemed to work for the country. If you ask me, the greatest damage Xi has done to the country is breaking tradition.

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I_m_a_turd t1_j272gh4 wrote

World class education and infrastructure that would benefit our populace? No thanks...we prefer to run a venture capital firm that our family can control.

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Neato_Orpheus t1_j247lqh wrote

It ain’t gonna happen. You need to be innovative and to be innovative you need to have freedom of thought.

Saudi Arabia is doomed.

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justAnotherLedditor t1_j24trsw wrote

Brainlet tier take.

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Neato_Orpheus t1_j24tyl0 wrote

Prove me wrong. Where has a repressive state ever made a marketable product?

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[deleted] t1_j25qyg1 wrote

china?

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Neato_Orpheus t1_j25rjlv wrote

I would argue that china manufactures products developed in the west. And then make copies of what the west designs. I can’t really think of products they’ve innovated.

They innovate In process and manufacturing. And again, there is more freedom of thought in China than Saudi Arabia.

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apstls t1_j25y354 wrote

I don’t think he means make as in manufacture, but make as in conceive

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millennium-wisdom t1_j27yv6f wrote

Indian, Chinese, Egyptian, Arab and Islamic civilizations

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Neato_Orpheus t1_j27z2xf wrote

Uh this is way to broad. And tell me their products from a modern capitalist setting.

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millennium-wisdom t1_j28bigl wrote

All were ruled by “ repressive authoritarian “ kings, Emprar, caliph and sultans and were able to innovate and produce products that the Europeans sought. I suggest you read about the Silk Road

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Neato_Orpheus t1_j2a6twj wrote

Well considering that they weren’t capitalist societies I don’t think those apply.

And also what civilization and what time? India was not India until after the British Raj. The sub-continent had a variety of states.

Egyptian civilization lasted 1000s of years and we don’t see a lot of innovation from them comparatively. They were still using Bronze weapons until the Hitties showed up with Iron.

China did have a lot of innovation but usually when it wasnt a Legalist dynasty in power. All their golden ages came from the least repressive regimes. The Han and Tang dynasties were very open compared to their predecessors.

And the caliphs of the Muslim empires had some of the most open courts in the world. Scholars and Scientist from all over the world went to their courts. Chemistry and Math had their foundations there. The whole reason we have Plato’s and Aristotle’s texts are because they kept the records as well as developed the numerals we use today. That’s not repressive.

You don’t know what your talking about

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millennium-wisdom t1_j2d1kre wrote

The Arabian civilization were the first capitalist society. They invented capitalism.

Muhammad ﷺ was the first Capitalist

Here are eleven basic principles set by him.

1 The Prophet ﷺ set up a market for the people, not controlled by the state.

2 He ﷺ did not tax it.

3 He ﷺ "was going to set prices, but determined that prices are in the hands of Allah."

4 People can own wealth, land, & the means of production.

5 The ruler has no rights over people's wealth (this hugely limits the ability to levy taxes).

6 The primary concern of the ruler, as per Sayyidna Umar, is "the stomachs of the poor."

7 Wealth sitting idle for a year is to be given to the poor at a rate of 2.5%.

8 Money-lending is an unlawful industry when the loan results in an increased return for the lender.

9 Finance requires partnership.

10 Wealth is better from the aspect of helping others: advancing the deen, supporting the needy, not having to ask people for money.

11 Poverty is better for one's own individual soul, based on the hadith, "You will conquer Persian & Byzantium and have one dress for the morning and another one in the evening.

See. Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism Book by Benedikt Koehler

Egyptian invented lots of things. Off my head all musical instruments, the calendar alchemy.

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justAnotherLedditor t1_j24wcfg wrote

Stop changing goalposts, no one was talking about marketable products until now.

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apstls t1_j25xvny wrote

…then what are we talking about? unmarketable products?

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9-11GaveMe5G t1_j25oyj7 wrote

>450M is like nothing to Saudi Arabia

They spent more than that on golf

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samz22 t1_j242mik wrote

I feel like there just burning money, few get a return but not instantly it’s a long hold. So if they keep burning money on garbage companies, how long till people start making companies just to please the saudis and get their investments and bounce lol

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KingKlugg772 t1_j25urk3 wrote

In theory they make more money on interest than most countries GDP, they could buy the whole of start ups in 2023 and not break a sweat about it.

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Vash2P t1_j241j68 wrote

Saudi Arabia is the country.

Saudia is the airline.

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HornyJamal t1_j268bfq wrote

Arabs like myself dont say Saudi Arabia. Thats for westerners. We just say Saudia

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vuxanov t1_j23jnr2 wrote

Now you can cut journalists limbs off in VR

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Mad_currawong t1_j23qjqy wrote

My friend worked on ML in dev team… he says it was all smoke and mirrors

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Dickenshmirst t1_j23w945 wrote

Not surprised at all. Been folllowing them for years and they seemed really shady with their releases. Absurd how much money they funneled without a mainstream product.

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asdaaaaaaaa t1_j241sjr wrote

One rule I follow with companies (and government organizations) is that they like to brag, show off, advertise their successes. In most situations, if they had something to brag about (especially with releasing/advertising products and such), they do. I tend to look for what's missing in that stuff, as it an sometimes give a better indication of what's going on than what little information companies can give out.

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Dickenshmirst t1_j24bk2v wrote

That is absolutely true. The crazy thing is that they’ve raised millions from investors including the likes of Google, for vaporware. Seems like a money laundering scheme with A LOT of extra steps lol

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Moe_Capp t1_j249gsq wrote

The very first released Magic Leap One device in 2018 proved beyond a shadow of a doubt they really had no particular edge with their supposedly special patented display technology. They did a pretty good job with everything else but the most important part. It doesn't matter how great the display looks if it has the FOV of a postage stamp.

Most of AR is long figured out by now except for two important things. Practical wide-enough FOV displays, and mobile micro power supplies. At the rate its going it could be another decade or more before a viable consumer product.

Nobody has solved the AR display problem yet despite the largest tech companies pouring billions of dollars into research over the last decade. Every year even Apple keeps coming up with new delays for its own take on smart glasses. They also seem to have everything figured out except for the most important part.

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regularITdude t1_j271wig wrote

the newly released model has improved FOV up to 70 degrees

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Moe_Capp t1_j2984mj wrote

Well that's an improvement at least, more realistic for some enterprise applications.

If the company hangs in there, then by the time there's viable and affordable hardware that can be mass produced, they could be in a strong position, with a mature software library and tracking systems.

Though that could be three more years or it could be ten more.

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bicameral_mind t1_j25efb5 wrote

Pass through like the Quest Pro has is really the only way forward for AR with current tech. Unfortunately pass through has many draw backs that kind of undermine the potential of the technology in the first place. Resolution limitations on display and cameras, lighting fluctuations due to camera exposures, lack of true color in real spaces, etc. Software can theoretically mitigate some of this but then you get to the compute problem and it's very taxing.

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MojaMonkey t1_j288qlt wrote

The quest pro is not the only way forward for AR. Check out the nreal air. I literally use it daily for hands free information connected by a cable to my smartphone.

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bastardoperator t1_j250em0 wrote

I worked with a devops engineer for CI related purposes, he claimed it was all bullshit too, lol.

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yaosio t1_j27pb0i wrote

I forgot Magic Leap existed. I remember all the hype, the videos, and then absolutely nothing.

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HSdoc t1_j24lc2z wrote

Magic leap is such a con, but I so glad they coned Saudis.

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Dtfran t1_j26f2ep wrote

Can I ask why if you don’t mind, I saw some internship postings for Magic Leap that I never applied to but I’m still curious

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jerzy4 t1_j26qz43 wrote

Probably because magic leap is basically vaporware

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regularITdude t1_j271pjp wrote

it's not, They flopped hard on their first model and underwhelmed consumers and developers who arguably weren't ready. They have since replaced leadership, pivoted to commercial, and released an impressive 2nd model. They do a lot of manufacturing, health, and defense deals that go largely under the radar. They have accrued a concerning amount of debt, but continue to impress investors with demos. They never repaired their impression with consumers because they didn't need to. They should be concerned with developers though. It's a promising company that could easily be picked up for quadruple this amount if Amazon, Google, Nvidia or whoever decides they want to take a magic leap to the front of the AR space.

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MojaMonkey t1_j288k8n wrote

They got $500m in 2014 from Google. Check out the nreal air which is a real product for sale now for comparison to Magic Leap scam.

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tomistruth t1_j24pzhx wrote

Saudis are the biggest suckers for things they can't make, don't understand and will never be able to monetize. Imagine the Nigerian Prince meeting Saudis. That's what McKinsey and Saudi Arabia are.

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newtonkooky t1_j24t0gc wrote

Basically what happens when you got a bunch of billionaires who didn’t earn their wealth, rich kids are the best suckers

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BlazinAzn38 t1_j26pppy wrote

Also when there’s no one to tell you “no this is a bad idea”

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elcaminoZero t1_j23ukpo wrote

ML built a production facility near my old job in Austin, TX around 8 years ago. Still waiting to hear something major from them. Only product I recall seeing was on a YouTube review and it was pretty underwhelming.

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KickAssWilson t1_j24997v wrote

Their headquarters in Plantation, FL is the site of the old Motorola plant. They did radio/walkie-talkies there.

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regularITdude t1_j270asp wrote

They just released their 2nd device model, it's pretty impressive. Big splash at CES this year.

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hurtfulproduct t1_j23r42e wrote

Considering how little we have heard or seen in the last few years from them this acquisition might cause them to actually make progress. . . Unfortunately it will likely be progress in the completely wrong direction

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futurespacecadet t1_j24oo2w wrote

Magic leap was cutting edge as it was the first company to do marketing in the space. and it was good marketing, but wtf have they actually done? its been years and millions of dollars, i have yet to see anything. prob a scam

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oodelay t1_j2435ir wrote

Saudi Arabia should just buy everything and be over with it.

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Wh00ster t1_j24lyvd wrote

But can they buy love?

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oodelay t1_j24vl8w wrote

No but they can buy women and rape them. I don't think they want love from them.

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EmbarrassedHelp t1_j296ukm wrote

They can also buy critics' personal information to use for attempted assassinations.

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squidking78 t1_j26xsea wrote

“Country that still publicly beheads people and enjoys many other medieval practices tried to profit off tech thousands of years ahead of it”.

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doorknob101 t1_j27ockn wrote

France beheaded people until the 1970s too.

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squidking78 t1_j27v5xt wrote

In public eh? I am aware of the history of the guillotine.

But sad you have to go back as far as the 70s to try to deflect from what the house of Saud do in the current day.

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BiZender t1_j270cr0 wrote

Now what they need to do is purchase META. Such a double win for the world.

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Konras t1_j23jxkv wrote

Will rebrand it to Magic Leak.

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Kripto t1_j24stj7 wrote

They probably have a demo which is pretty impressive to those not up to date in the field, but I predict they will be steamrolled due to patents and resources held by the bigger players in the market.

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imeeme t1_j25z4o8 wrote

Neom! I mean, Neat!

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JC2535 t1_j26zvxc wrote

In the Venture Capital space, you can make lots of money over promising and under delivering for years. The big red flag is when the square footage allotted to marketing is larger than the square footage assigned to Research & Development. Sometimes you can actually measure the scam.

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HSdoc t1_j272zmr wrote

It's another example of over promising and under performing. Magic leap has never made anything till now , just complete fabrication. I would put them in same place as Theranos or Nikola truck.

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ltethe t1_j27ofa0 wrote

Oh man, I worked for Magic Leap when the Saudi Crown Prince came to visit and give us his infusion of cash. It was fun and games until a few months later when the Khashoggi killings happened, then I was like, well, we’ve got a very uncomfortable bedfellow here.

Also, Rony seemed like a pretty devout Jew, so it just goes to show that all’s fair when it comes to money.

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dewayneestes t1_j27rc2e wrote

Imagine if all the billionaires moved to the Metaverse and left the rest of us alone.

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Broad_Bag_5526 t1_j24l75y wrote

The KSA has been an investor in Magic Leap for over a decade now. They're just increasing their stake.

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Dave_99888 t1_j23igqb wrote

awww shit, whatever they want it for, its not going to be good.

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