From Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance:
When Facebook Inc. renamed itself last week in a full-scale embrace of the metaverse, it drew criticism that the concept was either unrealistic or downright dystopian.
The company, now called Meta Platforms Inc., argues that millions of users are ready to adopt virtual reality technology — like its own headset — and live their lives in immersive online environments. That could mean attending a work meeting in a virtual boardroom, touring a digital factory or hanging out with far-flung friends in a simulated saloon. “The metaverse is the next frontier,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg declared.
For now, few people even have VR gear, and the metaverse concept would have to overcome concerns about privacy and — for some — a certain creepiness. But it has a big believer in one key corner: the largest maker of video-game chips, which says the metaverse is closer than we think and potentially the next gold mine for technology.
The video-game boom set Nvidia Corp. on a path to become the world’s most richly valued chip company — overtaking the likes of Intel Corp. — and now it’s ready to remake the internet as a three-dimensional place. Rather than using the web to look at electronic pages, there will be a set of connected virtual worlds, according to Richard Kerris, an executive at the chipmaker whose career has included stints at Apple Inc. and Lucasfilm.
“You might not think you’ll be in the metaverse, but I promise in the next five years all of us will be in one way or another,” he said.
Of course, Nvidia has a strong interest in the metaverse concept working out. It’s been seeking growth opportunities that go beyond its roots in graphics cards for video games. One big one is artificial intelligence, which relies on its chips to handle increasingly demanding tasks — including helping render the worlds needed for the metaverse. Nvidia also has a software platform, Omniverse, for creating virtual spaces.
At the same time, Nvidia is attempting to acquire Arm Ltd. from SoftBank Group Corp. in what would be the largest deal in chip-industry history. That would bring it the much-prized semiconductor designs used in most smartphones and a range of other devices. That includes sensors and cameras that will be a crucial part of the infrastructure of the new worlds.
For years, company co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang has been an evangelist for AI and the virtual spaces it could help create. There are billions of dollars at stake, and — to hear Nvidia describe it — the upheaval could recast the world’s biggest tech companies.
Switching to a more graphically intensive internet plays into Nvidia’s strengths. Providing a photo-realistic experience — one where users struggle to tell the difference between the virtual and real — will require massive amounts of data and computers that can manipulate it very quickly. That means more computers with graphics and artificial intelligence processors, markets that Nvidia is already leading.
In its current state, the metaverse is territory that Nvidia knows well: video games. Every day millions of gamers immerse themselves in realistic virtual worlds sharing experiences with people they’ve never met. The computing behind that relies heavily on Nvidia’s products in either personal computers or server farms. That’s a multibillion-dollar market not only for Nvidia but for PC makers, game-console makers and game publishers.
The gamer metaverse is the one that’s most familiar to the public, fueled by movies such as “Ready Player One” that show dystopian worlds where humanity spends most of its time hooked up to a machine.
That dark vision is something Zuckerberg and Nvidia have to overcome in pitching the metaverse as a friendly, mainstream idea. The concept also needs to reach a critical mass before less-plugged-in people even want to try it. It will take at least three years for Meta VR headsets to gain an installed base of 15 million to 20 million users, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh. The products cost hundreds of dollars, so they’re not something consumers buy on a whim....
....MUCH MORE
If interested see also yesterday's "This Might Be Important: Facebook Wants To Be The AI of the Metaverse (FB)".
And for a bit on NVDA embracing the dark side we have 2018's "NVIDIA Wants to Run Your City: Smart City Control Centers (NVDA)"
First off, let's make something crystal clear. From The Register, September 7, 2017:
Smart cities? Tell it like it is, they're surveillance cities
Lots of lovely data, less of lovely privacy
