Alphabet killed its Makani energy kites after 14 years without a commercial path

On February 18, 2020, Alphabet announced it was calling it quits on Makani, its effort to build and monetize wind energy kites. Makani was founded in 2006, came into Google as an X project seven years before the shutdown, and was spun out of X in 2019 as a standalone Alphabet Other Bet. Astro Teller, captain of Moonshots at X and chairman of the Makani board, said the road to commercial viability was 'much longer and riskier' than hoped and that it no longer made sense for Makani to be an Alphabet company.

The engineering had genuinely progressed: at X/Alphabet the team got a 20kW demonstration off the ground and expanded it to a unit capable of producing up to 600kW. What it never found was a business. 'Creating an entirely new kind of wind energy technology means facing business challenges as well as engineering challenges,' wrote Makani lead Fort Felker — despite strong technical progress, the road to commercialization was longer and riskier than hoped.

The pullback shows how the freewheeling Google that would buy a kite-power company has hardened: Alphabet now expects even forward-looking Other Bets to become standalone businesses in the long run. Teller framed the kill as resource discipline — with the climate crisis urgent, not every climate-related idea deserves investment; resources belong where impact is greatest. Alphabet still hopes to work with Shell, one of Makani's earliest partners, on other uses of the technology.

Seven years inside X/Alphabet and a 2019 spin-out ended with no commercial product; only a Shell tie to explore other uses survives

The kites flew, but only as demonstrations — 600kW units never closed the gap to a product customers would buy at scale.

Commercialization, not engineering, was the blocker: business risk and technical risk compounded instead of one of them resolving.

Alphabet's patience model changed: Other Bets are now expected to become standalone businesses, and Makani had no path to becoming one.

Climate urgency cut both ways — Teller argued funding every green idea dilutes resources away from those with the greatest impact.

Moonshots die on the road to commercialization, not in the lab. A technology that works in demonstrations still has to beat the boring incumbent on cost, at scale, on a deadline.

Alphabet said it hoped to work with Shell, one of Makani's earliest partners, to see how the technology could be used in another way. The report gives no layoffs or asset-sale details and puts no figure on the money spent across the project's 14 years. The shutdown landed as Alphabet tightened expectations that even moonshot bets must graduate into viable standalone businesses.