Meta and Qualcomm are dealing with building business virtual fact chips for metaverse applications

September 5, 2022: On Friday, the companies reported that Meta and Qualcomm are teaming up to create custom chipsets for virtual reality products.

The two U.S. technology companies have signed a multi-year agreement “to collaborate on a recent era of spatial computing,” using Qualcomm’s “extended reality” Snapdragon technology. Extended reality refers to virtual and comprehensive reality technologies which merge the physical and digital worlds.

“We’re working with Qualcomm Technologies on customized virtual reality chipsets powered by Snapdragon XR media and technology for our prospective roadmap of Quest products,” Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, said.

The Quest products are Meta’s line of virtual reality headsets. The Meta Quest 2 headset currently uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 chipset.

Since its rebrand in 2021, Facebook-parent Meta has staked its future on the metaverse. This term contains virtual and increased reality technology to keep people working and playing in digital worlds.

In the smartphone field, organizations from Apple to Samsung have designed their custom processors to distinguish them from competitors and create better products than they might have using off-the-shelf chips.

A focus on custom chips by Meta makes sense as it looks to differentiate its headsets and possibly create unique user experiences.

“Unlike mobile phones, making virtual reality brings novel, multi-dimensional challenges in spatial computing, cost, and form factor,” Zuckerberg said. “These chipsets will help us keep pushing virtual reality to its limits and deliver great experiences.”

The contract length between the parties and the financial terms of the deal were not announced.

It comes as Meta gears up to establish a new virtual reality headset in October, even as losses in its Reality Labs division, which includes its VR business, in the year’s two quarters.