X Development

Also known as Google X, Google X Lab, Google[x]

semi-secret research and development company by Alphabet Inc.

Key facts

Trade name: X
Formerly: Google X (2010–2015)
Company type: Division
Industry: Research and development
Founded: January 2010 ; 16 years ago ( 2010-01 )
Founders: Sebastian Thrun Yoky Matsuoka
Headquarters: Mountain View, California , United States
Key people: Astro Teller ( CEO )
Products: Artificial intelligence Computational neuroscience Health care Biotechnology
Parent: Google (2010–2015; 2022–present) Alphabet (2015–2022)
Subsidiaries: Subsidiaries SCHAFT Industrial Perception Redwood Robotics Meka Robotics Holomni Bot & Dolly Autofuss Jetpac Gecko Design Flutter DNNresearch
Website

~21 min read

Article

X Development LLC, doing business as X (formerly Google X), is an American semi-secret research and development facility and organization founded by Google in January 2010. X has its headquarters about a mile and a half from Google's corporate headquarters, the Googleplex, in Mountain View, California.

According to an official blog post from the company, X's mission is to "invent and launch 'moonshot' technologies that [they] hope could make the world a radically better place." A moonshot is defined by X as the intersection of a big problem, a radical solution, and breakthrough technology. Work at X is overseen by entrepreneur scientist Astro Teller, as CEO and "Captain of Moonshots". The lab started with the development of Google's self-driving car.