Qualcomm is launching a new fund that will invest up to $100 million to foster developer communities and companies focused on XR, foundational technologies and content enabling the metaverse.
It’s the latest move for Qualcomm in placing greater emphasis on extended reality (XR) as a key focus as it also aims to capitalize on and play a central role in helping to usher in the metaverse.
Dubbed the Snapdragon Metaverse Fund, the money will be deployed through a combination of its venture capital arm Qualcomm Ventures with investments in XR companies and through a grant program by Qualcomm Technologies. Targets for investment are leading XR companies and those building foundational technologies and content ecosystem for metaverse experiences. The company called out the developer ecosystem to fund XR experiences across gaming, health and wellness, media, entertainment, education and enterprise.
Qualcomm is putting more weight behind the metaverse and XR following investments in its own technologies, including Snapdragon XR platforms. In a push for XR it teed up Snapdragon Spaces, an XR developer platform to help AR glasses as companions to smartphones and enabling developers to build 3D applications. In February the chipmaker stood up new XR Labs in Europe, citing reinforcement of its role in enabling the metaverse. The labs are focused on R&D and technology in areas across advanced hand tracking, 3D mapping, multi-user experiences and image recognition, among others.
Cristiano Amon, president and CEO of Qualcomm, in the announcement said that “Qualcomm is the ticket to the metaverse.”
“We deliver the groundbreaking platform technology and experiences that will enable both the consumer and the enterprise to build and engage in the metaverse and allow the physical and digital worlds to be connected,” Amon stated.
“Through the Snapdragon Metaverse Fund, we look forward to empowering developers and companies of all sizes as they push boundaries of what’s possible as we enter into this new generation of spatial computing,” he continued.
Qualcomm said recipients of the fund could get early access to XR platform technology, hardware kits, a global network of investors, alongside opportunities to co-market and promote technologies. The company will officially start taking applications for the Snapdragon Metaverse Fund in June.
Wireless carriers are also exploring where they fit into the metaverse, such as Verizon, which struck a strategic deal with Meta earlier this month, in part to understand foundational requirements.
“Our collaboration with Meta will explore how Verizon’s MEC infrastructure can deliver intensive XR cloud rendering and low latency streaming,” said Verizon chief strategy officer Rima Qureshi during Verizon’s March investor day.
Still, while the metaverse could provide opportunities to carriers to monetize 5G and deliver so-called killer apps – it will require networks to support it, along with innovation in other technologies. Meta VP of Connectivity Dan Rabinovitsj in a blog post called the move to the metaverse an “unprecedented opportunity for the connectivity industry.” But as reported by Light Reading, 5G may not be the best suited to support those needs, such as the network requirement Meta outlined of a “common framework” that supports data sharing, one of a few aspects the report said could pose a challenge for mobile operators.