With the simple announcement of a name change, Facebook brought the word “metaverse” into the international conversation about the future of technology and society.
Now calling itself Meta Platforms, the company formerly known as Facebook has fueled excitement about what the construction of a true metaverse will look like — and sparked a new investment frenzy among companies hoping to make a fortune off of it.
Most people will be familiar with the concept of a metaverse from Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” an adaptation of the popular novel about a polluted world where the only respite is an immersive video game. But the reality is that the revolution has already begun.
Record numbers of people now tune into virtual concerts, video gaming has become a full-time job for many professional players across the globe, and virtual fashion is even becoming a real thing. Many video games have already created something like a metaverse, with the immersive worlds of Minecraft or Roblox or Fortnite, where users make virtual friends, buy virtual products and even attend events in the game’s virtual world.
Investors are bullish on supporting the companies that seem primed to succeed in the virtual world that seems destined to become a reality.
Here are a few of the metaverse-facing companies that investors feel most excited about.
Nvidia
The most obvious company for investing in the metaverse is Facebook (well, Meta Platforms, that is), but Mark Zuckerberg actually mentioned another company in his announcement of the shift: Nvidia.
In July, Zuckerberg said that “companies like Nvidia that are building a lot of the graphics chips that are going to be really important for a lot of the content that I think is going to be increasingly graphically intense.”
According to The Motley Fool, Zuckerberg is “exactly right” because making the metaverse a reality will require powerful graphics as well as advanced technology in the augmented reality and virtual reality spaces.
“Nvidia should be a surefire winner, considering that its graphics processing units (GPUs) are already the gold standard for gaming,” The Motley Fool wrote. “While there could be hundreds (and perhaps even thousands) of companies scrambling to develop software for the metaverse, only a handful of players have the resources and expertise to build the chips that will be needed.”
AMPD Ventures Inc.
There’s plenty of room for other companies to make a splash as the metaverse evolves, and AMPD Ventures is likely one of them.
The company just raised nearly $7 million from investors interested in supporting the company’s metaverse-facing initiatives, which includes the planned acquisition of Departure Lounge Inc., a Vancouver, BC-based company pursuing various technology and content initiatives related to the development of the Metaverse.
Departure Lounge also recently signed an agreement with leading 4D holographic capture provider, Metastage Inc., to build a Metastage holographic capture facility in Vancouver, BC.
One of AMPD’s investors, Sheldon Inwentash of ThreeD Capital Inc., said that “AMPD is a leader in edge computing, which is integral to 5G, the Internet of Things, and is the next generation of cloud computing. We are extremely excited to be involved with this disruptive company.”
ePlay Digital Inc.
The metaverse is expected to be particularly popular among sports fans and sports video games players, and ePlay is already looking to capitalize on it.
In September 2021, ePlay Digital Inc., announced the launch of Klocked World, a virtual sports world in augmented reality.
The Klocked World virtual real estate platform allows users to purchase property, landmarks, natural wonders, stadiums, race courses, fields, baseball diamonds, golf courses and holes, race courses, and other iconic or locally famous sports real estate, according to the press release. “Partnerships with Spartan, NSTAMALL, and other similar companies bring the digital and physical sports world together in the Klocked Sports Metaverse,” the press release said.
With the announcement of Meta Platforms just a few months old, there are doubtless many more metaverse announcements — and new investing opportunities — to come.
