Many Apple and Microsoft employees have joined Meta Platforms in recent times. More than 100 employees of Microsoft’s AR team may have joined the Meta-company. Many former Microsoft employees are claiming that Meta is interested in getting people from the team developing the HoloLens AR headsets. Data sourced from LinkedIn profiles show that over 70 employees of this Microsoft project may have left the company in the last year. It is estimated 40 or more of them have joined Meta.
Highly Valuable HR Assets
Microsoft had taken the lead in establishing an augmented reality team for the HoloLens project. Those who have worked on this project have gained experience and now become highly valuable. Microsoft had announced this project in 2016. The technology involved in this project has become highly advanced and led to the creation of sophisticated AR headsets. Apple is also trying to prevent an exodus of its employees to Meta. It is offering lucrative bonuses worth $50,000-$180,000 and stock options to keep them in its fold. These bonuses are given to engineers involved in hardware, some software programming, and silicon design departments.
Facebook’s Aggressive Approach to Its Meta-Project
Facebook, after changing its company name to Meta in October 2021, signaled its intention to grow beyond its major social media operations. Its VR hardware projects Reality Labs continues to progress, resulting in a successful prototype of VR haptic gloves in November 2021. However, even with these successes, Meta‘s desire to become a dominant player in the Metaverse has raised some concerns. Crypto experts cite its issues with privacy, content policies, and data mining.
Both Apple and Microsoft have been active on their metaverse projects in recent months. Meta also has big plans for this space.
