Carl Pei’s ‘Nothing’ picks up Andy Rubin’s ‘Essential’

In October of last year, it was rumored that OnePlus co-founder, Carl Pei, had left but there weren’t more details to really go off of. Then, Pei confirmed the news himself, while stating that there would be some additional news as to what his next venture would be.

Fast forward to the end of January 2021, and Carl Pei announced….Nothing. In an explanation, Pei explained that there were no hard feelings between the other OnePlus co-founder, Pete Lau, or with the company itself. But it was obvious that Pei wanted to try something new and different, compared to what OnePlus has been doing as of late.

Over the last few months, we have learned a bit more about various companies and celebrity’s that have backed Pei’s ‘Nothing’ venture. But there still have been no indications as to what Carl Pei has been working on in the background. Considering his history in the smartphone world, helping to bring the world the ‘Never Settle’ branding, speculation suggests that ‘Nothing’ will be trying to make a mark on the smartphone market.

It seems that we may have a better idea of what Nothing could be doing, as the company has acquired former Google-boss Andy Rubin’s Essential. 9to5Google found that Carl Pei’s ‘Nothing Technologies Limited’ submitted an application with the UK Intellectual Property Office back in November of 2020. This was agreed upon and Andy Rubin signed on the dotted line on January 6th.

While this does not confirm that Pei’s Nothing now owns all of the patents from Essential, but it does own existing trademarks, the logo, and branding. The interesting aspect of this is that Pei already confirmed that we would be getting some Nothing Wireless Earbuds later this year. But maybe with the acquisition of Essential, this is just the first step before we see a Nothing Phone.