Alphabet spins two moonshot projects into independent companies

Alphabet, Google's parent company, is letting two of its pet projects fly free.

The company announced today in a Medium post  that its internet-delivery balloon project Loon and delivery drone project Wing will become independent companies.

Both Loon and Wing will "graduate" from Alphabet's secretive research subsidiary dubbed "X." The skunkworks laboratory is known for nurturing experimental projects that work toward solving big problems, all with the aim of launching those projects as full-fledged independent businesses. They are often referred to as "moonshot" projects.

The lab has already produced several independent companies that exist under the Alphabet corporate umbrella including Waymo, Chronicle, and Verily. Read more...