Social media giant Meta is on a hiring spree, specifically for experienced AR/VR talent from tech rivals Microsoft and Apple. Most of the nearly 100 Microsoft employees who left the HoloLens and Windows maker last year ended up at Meta, signifying the latter’s push to build its metaverse.
The departure of Apple’s director of Mac system architecture, Jeff Wilcox, to Intel may seem like a coincidence to industry watchers. After all, the iPhone maker does have deep pockets, and its cash reserves comfortably eclipse that of the U.S., the world’s richest country. So why is it that the world’s most valuable company, whose market capitalization recently touched $3 trillion, is losing talent to rival tech companies?
As our recent report points out, money certainly does play a part, but it looks like there’s much more at play. Case in point, Microsoft has also been a victim of the recent trend of employee exodus from their organizations, famously dubbed the great resignation. According to The Wall Street Journal, approximately 100 employees of Microsoft, another Big Tech company, quit Redmond in the last year.
Most of them joined Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), which is aggressively recruiting, or in this case, poaching talent on a war footing. Facebook rebranded as Meta late in October 2021 to reposition itself around metaverse, a long-time vision of its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Meta clearly has its eyes on being the first to build a commercial metaverse. In this virtual environment, people interact with others in digital spaces, essentially an embodied internet where people actively participate instead of just watching.
Additionally, Meta may also have its eyes on any lucrative contracts such as the $22 billionOpens a new window Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) one Microsoft bagged last year in March.
Those who left Microsoft were from the HoloLens department, a 1,500 strong team involved in developing augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR). Meta reportedly offered the unnamed employees double their salaries at Microsoft, claimed WSJ. And why not? Facebook opened up its coffers to the tune of $10 billion to realize its metaverse ambitions.
But money aside, the momentum Meta has picked up in a relatively short period may also have attracted people working at other companies. The company’s top priority in 2022 is building the metaverse, which is considered the next big thing in virtual social interactions.
 According to The Information, as of October 2021, Meta had approximately 10,000 employees (one-fifth of its total) toiling away in the division responsible for research on AR-VR devices. The company has also announced plansOpens a new window to employ 10,000 people in Europe for the metaverse.
Besides experienced HoloLens techies working at Microsoft, Meta is also going after Apple employees, some of whom have already joined the Menlo Park, CA-based social media giant.
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