Meta Is Roping In AR Engineers From Apple, Microsoft: Report

Mark Zuckerberg in November last year rebranded Facebook under a new name, Meta, depicted by a loopy infinity logo. As suggested by the new moniker, the social networking mammoth is gearing up to work on metaverse projects. In order to strengthen its team with the best minds, Meta is reportedly roping in tech workers from Apple and software giant Microsoft, especially targeting their team of Augmented Reality (AR). In the metaverse, which can be described as the future of the Internet that could support a functional virtual universe, AR will make for a vital element.

Around 100 staffers from Microsoft’s HoloLens AR headsets team have resigned and joined Meta over the last year, a report by the Wall Street Journal said.

When a similar pattern of former employees joining Meta was observed by Apple, the iPhone-maker began counteracting to retain its staff.

According to a Bloomberg report from December 2021, Apple has introduced lucrative stock options and bonuses worth between $50,000 (roughly Rs. 36 lakh) and $180,000 (roughly over Rs. 1 crore) for its employees.

Speaking about the goals of Meta, its vice president, Nick Clegg had revealed last year that the company is building itself for the metaverse.

While the concept of the metaverse is still catching up among tech-enthusiasts, Clegg said it was essential for Meta, formerly Facebook, to rush into the space.

In the words of Zuckerberg, the metaverse future will allow people to teleport instantly as a hologram to be “at the office without a commute, at a concert with friends, or in your parents’ living room to catch up”

The metaverse technology is seemingly on the rise. Both, Apple as well as Microsoft have also shown interest in the sector.

Last year Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had spoken in favour of the metaverse concept.

There are also speculations that Apple could release a mixed-reality (MR) headset for its vision of metaverse later this year, a report from Benzinga said recently.

Bloomberg Intelligence reportedly expects the market opportunity for the metaverse to reach $800 billion (roughly Rs. 59,58,719 crore) by 2024.