The Google-owned camera business has been selling its Polaroid smart camera business to Apple for $US1 billion in cash, sources have told Bloomberg.

The deal was announced in an investor presentation last week to the Chinese media conglomerate Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, the sources said.

The news comes as Google is set to launch its new Polaroid Photovision camera with a $US500 ($732) price tag.

It also follows a move by Apple to acquire its camera business for $1 billion, which is expected to close next month.

The announcement was made at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.

It is the second major acquisition of Google’s digital image business in as many years.

In 2015, the company bought the image processing company Pixamatic for $3.8 billion.

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