Qualcomm Announces $100 Million ‘Metaverse Fund’ For VR/AR Developers

Qualcomm Announces $100 Million 'Metaverse Fund'

Qualcomm is setting aside $100 million to fund immersive reality developers and technologies.

The Snapdragon maker, known in the VR and AR industry for its XR2 platform, today announced the Snapdragon Metaverse Fund. Through this initiative, the company plans to invest up to $100 million in studios working on gaming, health, media, entertainment, education and enterprise applications for headsets, as well as those working on “associated core augmented reality and related artificial intelligence technologies.”

Funds will be distributed through a combination of venture investments via the company’s Ventures arm and grants from Qualcomm Technologies. Recipients may also be given early access to new hardware, services and marketing opportunities. Applications for consideration will open in June.

Though the fund doesn’t specify that applicants must be working on projects specific to a so-called metaverse, Cristiano Amon, president and CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated labeled the company as a “ticket to the metaverse” in a prepared statement. Qualcomm has doubled down on the VR and AR space in recent years, with the XR2 chip embedded into every Quest 2 headset and utilized in a growing number of other standalone VR and AR devices. Just recently, it announced a partnership with TikTok owner ByteDance for future devices.

Elsewhere, Qualcomm is also announcing a collaboration with Square Enix on its AR headset development kit, Snapdragon Spaces. There’s plenty of news from the company spinning out of the first day of the Games Developer Conference (GDC), then. What do you make of Qualcomm’s announcements? Let us know in the comments below.