Google has agreed to acquire a portion of HTC's extended reality (XR) business for $250 million, enhancing its virtual and augmented reality hardware capabilities. This deal includes the transfer of HTC VIVE engineering staff to Google and non-exclusive intellectual property rights, while HTC retains development rights. This acquisition follows Google's previous $1.1 billion purchase of HTC's smartphone unit in 2017, and aims to accelerate the development of the Android XR platform. Both companies will also explore further collaboration opportunities in XR technology.