Qualcomm to dive into the metaverse

The tech giant announced yesterday that it’s created a $100M fund to invest in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). The fund is called the Snapdragon Metaverse Fund.

Why should we care?
Whether or not the metaverse takes off as a complete civilizational and financial shift that fuses bits and atoms together, tech providers like Qualcomm have identified a promising opportunity to develop and sell metaverse-adjacent technology in industrial contexts. “The metaverse is going to develop as a number of different opportunities,” said Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon. “You’re always going to have the big social network, consumer play. You’re going to have a big one for gaming, but industrial is big.” Through its partnership with Microsoft, Qualcomm is looking to develop lightweight AR glasses that could be attractive to the public in terms of function and aesthetics. Interestingly, Qualcomm is also hoping to financially support the creation of content that will use Qualcomm’s metaverse tech—in other words, it’s not just building the hardware and hoping that demand will come in time. Part of Qualcomm’s fund will go toward a grant program for AR/VR developers who work in gaming, health, entertainment, education, media, and advertising. With so many sectors in its crosshairs, it seems Qualcomm is taking a diversified approach to the metaverse, hoping that at least one segment will take off and generate massive revenue. It remains to be seen if Qualcomm’s efforts will pay off, or if their tech will end up in the landfill next to Snapchat’s Spectacles.