Meta and Qualcomm said in a statement that the companies’ engineering and product teams will work together to produce the chips. The chips will be powered by Qualcomm’s “Snapdragon” platform.
The companies did not disclose financial details of the deal. But the collaboration shows Meta’s recognition and continued support of Qualcomm’s technology, even as Meta is trying to develop its own custom chips for its planned line of virtual, augmented and mixed reality devices.
In response, Meta spokesperson Tyler Yee said that while the chipset produced through this collaboration is not unique to Meta, it is specifically optimized for the Quest’s system specifications. The partnership agreement only covers virtual reality devices, and Meta will continue to work hard to develop some of its own new silicon solutions, Yi said.
“In some cases, we use off-the-shelf chips, or work with industry partners to customize them, but at the same time, we’re exploring new chip solutions of our own. So there’s a possibility that it could be in the same product,” says Taylor Yi. A case of using both partners and custom solutions. It’s all about creating the best ‘metaverse’ experience possible.”
For years, Meta has relied on Qualcomm chips for its virtual reality devices, including its latest Quest 2 headset. According to research firm IDC, Quest 2 accounts for about 90% of the virtual reality hardware market.
In addition, Meta has invested heavily in technologies such as full-color pass-through and augmented reality glasses in an attempt to bring CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s “metaverse” vision to life.