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By now, it’s pretty clear that Facebook is serious about virtual and augmented reality. Further highlighting Facebook’s bet that immersive technologies are the future of computing, a report from Information says the company currently employs nearly 10,000 people to work on AR / VR.
The report maintains that this number represents a staggering number a fifth of Facebook’s total workforce worldwide. According to information obtained by Statista, the company has doubled its workforce since 2017, reaching approximately 58,000 employees in 2020.
Admittedly, the report does not go into detail; the 10k number likely reflects a wide range of devices and services outside of Oculus Quest, its Project Aria AR efforts, and its Ray-Ban smart glasses built in cooperation with Luxottica.
Dedicated research, development, manufacturing, communications, public relations teams – all the assets required of a business the size of Facebook can possibly be at stake in the 10k tally. It would also include projects like Portal, its development into AI, and even proprietary VR game studios like Sanzaru, Beat Games, and Ready at Dawn.
Assuming that’s true, none of this comes as much of a surprise. Facebook has been way ahead of its plans to own the space since it acquired Oculus in 2014 for $ 2 billion. Following the subsequent incorporation of his Oculus VR brand into the mothership, he opened Facebook Reality Labs, the company’s AR / VR skunkworks. As of this writing, Facebook Reality Labs has over 800 open jobs covering augmented reality, virtual reality, brain-computer interfaces, and artificial intelligence.
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