Mineral transfers assets to leading industry players like John Deere

After seven years at the helm of Alphabet subsidiary Mineral, which focused on developing advanced agricultural technologies, Mineral CEO Elliott Grant announced the company’s dissolution and the transfer of its assets to leading industry players, like John Deere.

Mineral’s technology, patents, and team will now be integrated into the operations of companies like John Deere, Driscoll’s, and Google Research Africa. John Deere will acquire patents and tools to enhance its See and Spray platform, which uses AI for precision weed control. Driscoll’s will incorporate Mineral’s yield forecasting tools, while Google Research Africa and The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT will continue work on phenotyping methods.

Broader audience

Grant emphasized that this move allows the innovative technologies developed by Mineral to reach a broader audience more quickly through partnerships with established agricultural leaders. He also highlighted the rapid advancements in AI over the past 18 months, which accelerated Mineral’s work and made it clear that larger organizations are better positioned to scale these innovations.

Grant expressed pride in Mineral’s contributions to the global food system and the ongoing impact of the team’s expertise in the industry in AgWeb. John Deere provided the following statement: “John Deere has acquired a technology suite from Mineral. This includes patents, pending patents, plant images, and machine learning tools developed by Mineral, a subsidiary of Alphabet.”