Even though the crypto and NFT market is down, there are hundreds of companies still investing in the Metaverse. From virtual workspaces to brand new brand NFT projects, major companies are still investing heavily in the metaverse. As the metaverse continues to evolve, these are the companies to watch.
Who are the major companies investing in the metaverse, and what are they working on? Below is our list for the biggest investments in the metaverse by company in 2022.
Meta (FB)
An obvious first choice, Meta (formerly Facebook), is betting its entire existence on the metaverse and metaverse technology. Meta has invested heavily in the metaverse, going back to its purchase of Oculus in 2014.
Along with the Oculus Virtual Reality headset, Meta has invested nearly $10 billion in designing its own metaverse and other supplemental technology. This is a major amount of capital that the company has deployed towards the project, and it is one that Mark Zuckerberg has major personal investment in.
At its new Meta Connect event, Zuckerberg revealed the newest Oculus headset, as well as the improvements to its virtual workspaces and new partnerships with other technology companies (some of which are also listed here).
Since its name change, Meta has begun turning the attention away from its social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, and towards its Metaverse technology like the Oculus and virtual social and working spaces.
Microsoft (MSFT)
Microsoft is another leader among its tech peers in its metaverse investment.
Teams, which enjoyed a massive amount of adoption during the pandemic, has been at the forefront of the companies Metaverse adoption. It is primarily is a platform for video collaboration in the workplace, and became the household name for remote-working.
Metaverse is usually thought of encompassing only gaming, however Microsoft’s investments are clearly aimed towards the workplace environment.
Microsoft recently has made headlines after Meta’s Connect event. At Connect, it was announced that a partnership between the two companies was coming. Microsoft Mesh is their primary investment into the metaverse. The goal of Mesh is to elevate remote workplace collaboration past only video meetings, and create a virtual co-working world.
Of all the players in the Metaverse, Microsoft is a top one to follow.
Roblox (RBLX)
One of the biggest names on this list isn’t primarily a hardware technology company, but a gaming company. Roblox is one of the biggest gaming companies in the world, and has invested millions of dollars in their metaverse. It is now one of the largest online games of all-time, with over 55.1 million users as of 2022.
Their metaverse is unique compared to Microsoft and Meta, as it is primarily user generated. This means that there are nearly limitless community driven games and avatars. This has been extremely instrumental in Roblox’s growth, and continues to be a significant driver for future revenue.
This game is considered a metaverse game due to the countless avatar options for Roblox users. Right now, there are millions of different Roblox skins and outfits available for download (and purchase!). Every purchase goes right into Roblox Corporations’ pocket. The corporation recently got into some controversy, however, when it was revealed that it takes nearly 75% of revenue from community creator sales. This has recently been remedied, though, and Roblox Corporation has dedicated to giving more back to its community.
Nvidia (NVDA)
Nvidia is another large tech company investing into the metaverse. In fact, the company is already working on some pretty interesting projects.
As one of the world’s foremost GPU developers, Nvidia is involved in everything from gaming hardware to crypto mining and countless other areas where graphics processing units are used. The company’s crucial role in all of the world’s tech stack makes it understandable why they are some of the biggest investors in the metaverse.
One of the newest initiatives is called Omniverse, which is Nvidia’s answer to customizable avatars. Unlike Meta’s Horizons or Roblox, these Avatars are virtual AI assistants to assist in the processing and creation of real-time applications. Onmniverse avatars will feature speech recognition, natural language understanding, and avatar animation powered by Nvidia’s Video2Face technology.
This approach to avatars in the metaverse is unlike all of the others, and because of that also has not gotten as much attention. However, it is clear that Nvidia has begun carving a path forward to become a large player in the Metaverse.
