Qualcomm has arrange a $100-million fund to spend money on digital and augmented actuality applied sciences in a bid to assist jump-start the metaverse.
The San Diego wi-fi know-how agency introduced the initiative, referred to as the Snapdragon Metaverse Fund, Monday. It mirrors different funds that Qualcomm has created over time to advance rising applied sciences the place it has a footprint. An instance is the $100-million Qualcomm Ventures Synthetic Intelligence Fund created in 2018.
The corporate plans to deploy the Snapdragon Metaverse Fund by investing in digital and augmented actuality firms via Qualcomm Ventures, its company enterprise capital arm.
It additionally will set up a grant program for software program builders creating digital and augmented actuality content material in fields equivalent to gaming, well being and wellness, media, leisure and training, in addition to content material focusing on companies.
In its metaverse fund announcement, Qualcomm mentioned that recipients of developer grants may obtain greater than cash, together with “the chance to achieve early entry to cutting-edge XR platform know-how, hardware kits, a world community of traders, and co-marketing and promotion alternatives.” Purposes for the Snapdragon Metaverse Fund will formally open in June.
What's the metaverse? In broad phrases, it’s a digital world the place customers can work together digitally as they might in the true world. Augmented and digital actuality are a part of the metaverse. The commonest utility for now's gaming. However the potential makes use of span a spread of fields and pursuits.
Utilizing digital actuality, shoppers may take lifelike digital excursions of houses on the market or wander via resorts just about earlier than reserving. They may get a number of digicam angles at sporting occasions. Augmented actuality glasses may translate indicators and menus as abroad vacationers stroll via city, or they might overlay directions on glasses for restore crews fixing tools.
Qualcomm provides core applied sciences essential to the metaverse, together with 5G connectivity, synthetic intelligence and digital/augmented actuality processors and software program. It has provided chips and software program to prime digital actuality headset makers for fairly some time.
Growth of this know-how is a key piece of Qualcomm’s efforts to diversify its enterprise past smartphones. At January’s CES shopper electronics commerce present in Las Vegas, Qualcomm showcased its efforts to broaden cellular applied sciences past smartphones and deeper into vehicles.
“By the Snapdragon Metaverse Fund, we look ahead to empowering builders and firms of all sizes as they push boundaries of what’s potential as we enter into this new technology of spatial computing,” Qualcomm Chief Govt Cristiano Amon mentioned in a press release.
Qualcomm final month posted robust monetary outcomes, pushed by 5G Android smartphones, significantly in China, and continued enlargement of its wi-fi applied sciences into automotive and different non-smartphone markets. For the quarter that led to December, Qualcomm’s income reached $10.7 billion, up 30% over the year-earlier quarter. Adjusted earnings rose 47% to $3.69 billion, or $3.23 a share.
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