Silicon Valley is taking a $542 million leap of faith on an augmented reality startup.

Founded in 2011, Magic Leap this week announced a new round of funding from tech giants like Google and Qualcomm, among other venture groups and personal investors.

"We are excited and honored to have such an extraordinary group of investors to help us bring our vision and products to the world," Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz said in a statement. "Magic Leap is going beyond the current perception of mobile computing, augmented reality, and virtual reality. We are transcending all three, and will revolutionize the way people communicate, purchase, learn, share and play."

As part of the deal, Sundar Pichai, senior vice president at Google, will join Magic Leap's board of directors. "We are looking forward to Magic Leap's next stage of growth," Pichai said. "And to seeing how it will shape the future of visual computing."

Paul Jacobs, executive chairman of Qualcomm, and Don Harrison, vice president of corporate development at Google, will also join, as observers.

Magic Leap, headquartered in Florida, was born out of the idea that people should come first, and computing and technology should fit our needs.

"Our media and computing today is separate from us. We watch television, we read books to understand the real or imagined experiences of others," Abovitz wrote in a recent blog post. "Playing videos games can be awesome, but it can also lack the immediacy of playing football in the mud, or of building a snow fort with your friends. I wondered for many years what it would take to close the gap, to integrate and synthesize all of the things I love. Why couldn't visceral experience combine with computing? Why can't I see a dragon? Why can't computing interact us with us more naturally, like the real world?"

Investors apparently agreed, providing Magic Leap with an initial $50 million earlier this year to develop its Cinematic Reality platform.

Still in the early stages, the company is now reaching out to app developers, artists, and musicians, meeting with production companies, and "dreaming big dreams."

"The world at times can be hard and cynical. But every generation deserves its chance to dream again, to dare to fly to the moon," Abovitz said. "It takes creative thinking. It takes open minds. That is where we are going. I hope that you can join us."

Few details are available about "Cinematic Reality," but you can watch Abovitz talk about the future of technology in the December 2012 TED Talk video below.

Virtual and augmented reality, meanwhile, are big business, with Facebook spending $2 billion on Oculus VR earlier this year. At I/O, Google also gave away its smartphone-equipped "Cardboard" device to attendees. For more, check out Making Virtual a Reality.

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