Google Spends $100 Million to Buy Avatars for TikTok

Google may be struggling in ad revenues right now and pushing harder for hardware, but it appears not to be against spending nine figures to purchase an AI-powered imaging firm focused on creating avatars. According to a source familiar, that’s what just happened.

TechCrunch was told by a source that Alter is the company and that the price was $100 million. Google confirmed the acquisition later but didn’t provide any further details. The acquisition was reportedly completed “around two months ago” and is intended to strengthen the company’s efforts in TikTok. Jonathan Slimak, former Alter COO, announced in September on LinkedIn that the new position at Google was his. He did not acknowledge the acquisition.