Dyson is spending big on new products and product categories, the company announced today. The maker of vacuums, fans, heaters, hand dryers, robots and more announced today that it would be spending a total of $2.35 billion across a UK tech campus, expansion of its manufacturing efforts, investment in British universities to foster talent, and $1.56 billion in new specific tech development projects.
The British company wants to roll out no fewer than 100 new products, across four new tech portfolios over just the next four years – we’ve already seen it introduce the 360 Eye robot vacuum cleaner this year, as well as announce its entry into the humidifier market, with a device that simultaneously filters bacteria out of the air while it works. In past interviews, founder and CEO James Dyson has hinted that the company might be interested in applying the work it has done in battery tech to other areas, too, and continuing to advance the field of domestic robotics.
Dyson says it folds a full one-third of its total profits back into R&D, and notes that 2,000 of its roughly 4,500 employees worldwide are engineers, and 1,000 of those have come on board in the last four years alone. Its partnerships with academic institutions also help it funnel new talent into the company, as well as work out outside research projects.
With this investment, Dyson is signalling a shift that could mean we no longer see it primarily as a vacuum company in four years’ time. Could it instead become synonymous with domestic robotics? Early yet to tell, since the Dyson 360 Eye has yet to even go on sale, but should arrive this coming spring beginning in Japan.