Social media giant Facebook plans to recruit 10,000 people for high-tech jobs, including AR and VR, in Europe over the next five years. The company will focus the hiring at Facebook bases in Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Netherlands.
The announcement comes to realize CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitious vision for a ‘metaverse.’ The idea had picked up momentum following an address from Zuckerberg to Facebook employees this summer. The concept of an online network connected through virtual and augmented reality experiences emerged, which only video-game makers highlighted.
Nick Clegg, Facebook’s VP for Global Affairs, and Javier Olivan, its VP of Central Products, revealed that onboarding engineers to build its metaverse is one of the company’s “most pressing priorities.”
“As Facebook continues to grow in Europe, we hope to invest more in its talent,” he said.
Europe is home to thousands of Facebook employees. Paris became the site of Facebook’s first major AI research lab outside the US in 2015, and Cork in the west of Ireland houses one of the Facebook Reality Labs teams.
Facebook Reality Labs focuses on developing next-generation AR and VR technologies by an interdisciplinary team of research scientists, hardware product engineers, semiconductor technologists, and more.
The EU’s large consumer market, higher-education network, and availability of talent are touted as the key reasons behind this move by the company.
“Facebook is at the start of a journey to help build the next computing platform,” added Gareth Lambe, Head of Facebook Ireland.
“Facebook Ireland has played an important role in our company’s growth and success to date. Today’s announcement is a commitment to grow in Ireland and across Europe and in our long-term investment in European talent to help build the metaverse.”
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