One the most improbable ideas from Google' s eccentric co-founders -- using high-altitude balloons to provide internet connections -- is getting a boost from another unconventional technology mogul.

An affiliate of Masayoshi Sons telecom company SoftBank Corp is investing $125 million in Loon, a subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet Inc. The SoftBank unit and Loon will share technology and ground stations, and form “an alliance to promote the use of high altitude communications solutions with regulators and officials worldwide,” according to a statement from the two companies.

The deal gives the SoftBank affiliate, HAPSMobile, an undisclosed minority stake in Loon. And in the future, Loon has the right to invest $125 million in HAPSMobile, a joint venture between SoftBank and Aerovironment Inc. that designs telecommunication aircraft. A spokesman for Loon declined to share details on the markets where the partnership will unfold.

Loon, which began in the Google X “moonshot lab,” retreated from an initial plan to blanket the globe with its internet-beaming, stratospheric helium-filled balloons. Instead, it has been negotiating more targeted deals with industry partners, including a telecom company in Kenya and satellite firm in Canada. Facebook Inc last year decided to shut down its own program, called Aquila, after about four years in development.

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin formed the Alphabet holding company in 2015 to give newer, riskier projects more room to grow away from the main Google digital advertising operation.

Some of these emerging businesses have taken investments from other companies in their industries.

Verily, an health-technology unit, has raised nearly $2 billion in outside funding.

Calico, a bold attempt to thwart death, has teamed up with pharmaceutical giant AbbVie Inc, which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the initiative.

HAPSMobile, which is 95 per cent owned by SoftBank, was created in January 2018 to develop solar-powered high-altitude unmanned aircraft and ground control stations. Aerovironment controls the remaining five per cent with an option to increase the stake to 19 per cent and has exclusive rights to design and manufacture all such aircraft in the future.

Aerovironment' s experience with high-altitude long-endurance aircraft dates back to the 90s, building prototypes for Nasa and the Pentagon. According to the company’s presentation materials to investors in June 2018, it targeted HAPS demonstration and certification starting next fiscal year. The slides showed a drone hovering thousands of feet above the ground, and outlined possible uses for mobile connections in mountainous and island areas.

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