Niantic Spatial Secures $250 Million Funding, Pivots to Geospatial AI After Gaming Division Sale

Niantic Spatial Inc., the newly formed entity spun off from Niantic, has announced a significant strategic shift, focusing entirely on building a third-generation, AI-powered geospatial map for augmented reality (AR) glasses and AI agents. This pivot follows the sale of Niantic's gaming division, including popular titles like Pokémon GO, to Scopely for $3.5 billion, and sees Niantic Spatial launching with $250 million in capital. The company's vision for the future of AI and AR was recently shared by Executive Producer Alicia Berry and Head of Product Marketing Asim Ahmed on the Voices of VR podcast.

The core of Niantic Spatial's new direction involves developing a "Large Geospatial Model" to enable machines to understand and interact with the physical world with centimeter-level precision. This technology, built upon a proprietary database of over 30 billion posed images, aims to enhance spatial reasoning in large language models (LLMs) by providing real-world contextual awareness. Asim Ahmed emphasized, "We're really focused on building the third generation AI-powered map of the world."

A key element of this strategy is a multi-year partnership with Snap Inc., which will focus on bringing outdoor AR experiences to life through Snap Spectacles. Alicia Berry noted the potential of this collaboration, stating, "It's the first mass market, next year mass market device, but at least right now, a device that will go outside, that will really combine our mission with hardware." This alliance is expected to leverage Niantic's Visual Positioning System (VPS) to anchor AR content with high accuracy in real-world environments.

Beyond mapping and device integration, Niantic Spatial is also expanding the Meow Wolf universe into spatial technology, aiming to bring immersive art experiences into everyday life. The company also highlighted its commitment to responsible innovation in the rapidly evolving spatial computing landscape, acknowledging the importance of data privacy and safety. Niantic Spatial will continue to operate its AR games Ingress Prime and Peridot, utilizing them as applications to further refine its geospatial platform.