The metaverse giant, Meta Platforms, recently announced a partnership with Qualcomm to build bespoke chipsets for its Quest virtual reality devices at the Consumer Electronics Expo in Berlin.
The chips, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platforms, will be produced by a joint effort of the engineering and product teams of the two companies, as per a release.
The partnership demonstrates Meta’s dependence on Qualcomm’s technology even as it works to create its proprietary silicon for its augmented, mixed, and virtual reality devices. Meta was formerly known as Facebook until last year when it announced its big push to be a leading innovator for the metaverse.
“Unlike mobile phones, building VR brings novel multidimensional challenges in spatial computing, cost, and form factor,” Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg stated in a video message.
He believes that we are still in the early stages of the metaverse, and such a deep technical integration is crucial to ensure that VR continues to develop a multifunctional computing platform.
In an effort to realize Zuckerberg’s vision for the metaverse, a notion incorporating an immersive compilation of virtual worlds, Meta has been substantially investing in technologies, including pass-through goggles and augmented reality glasses.
For years, including its most recent Quest 2 headset, it has depended on Qualcomm’s CPUs for its VR gadgets.
The chipsets generated through the agreement will not be proprietary to Meta, but will be designed particularly for Quest’s system specifications, said Meta representative Tyler Yee.
The two parties did not disclose the financial specifics of the transaction. According to Yee, the arrangement solely covers VR devices, and Meta will continue to focus on developing some of its own silicon solutions.
“There could be situations where we use off-the-shelf silicon or work with industry partners on customizations while also exploring our own novel silicon solutions. There could also be scenarios where we use both partner and custom solutions in the same product,” Yee stated.
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