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.

Google is paying HTC $250 million in cash for a deal that will give the bigger company's plans for Android XR a boost. Under the terms of their agreement, some members of the HTC Vive engineering team will be joining Google,