What you need to know
- Members of the approximately 1,500-person strong Microsoft HoloLens team have been leaving.
- Many of them have transitioned to rival augmented reality company, Meta.
- Apple has also seen some of its workers transition to Meta.
As its new name would imply, Meta (formerly Facebook) is going all-in on the metaverse. In order to do that, it needs employees, the likes of which it appears to be gathering in part from rival companies Apple and Microsoft.
In Microsoft's case, it has a team dedicated to HoloLens that measures roughly 1,500 people large. However, that team has been shrinking, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. Approximately 100 people have abandoned the home of HoloLens, with over 40 transitioning to work at Meta.
This comes at a time when Microsoft not only has its commercial-facing HoloLens endeavors to worry about, but also the IVAS project for the U.S. Army. That project recently saw a delay.
According to the WSJ report, former employees said Microsoft hadn't hired enough engineers to keep up with the strain IVAS is putting on company resources. And further employee departures won't help matters, either.
Apple's team members are also cited as part of the defector wave, with former Apple employees joining Meta. Meta did not comment to WSJ about its recruiting practices.
With all that being said, at least publicly speaking, Microsoft has made it clear the metaverse is a focus. Meta snapping up Redmond's employees may, to some, suggest that one company values the world of augmented reality more and is willing to do more to ensure there's manpower behind it, but based on the publicly available information, both companies have their hands full with AR ambitions.
