US tech leader Facebook announced plans on Sunday to hire roughly 10,000 employees from the European Union (EU) to help social media giant firm develop the Metaverse.
The news comes after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg revealed in early August Facebook would transform into the global leader of the Metaverse – an online, shared extended reality (XR) space.
A company blog post revealed the Menlo Park-based firm is hiring 10,000 EU engineers to “unlock access to new creative, social, and economic [metaverse] opportunities.”
The firm is hiring specialised engineers over 5 years with the intention of putting the EU region “at the heart of [Facebook’s] plans.”
“This investment is a vote of confidence in the strength of the European tech industry and the potential of European tech talent”
Facebook is approaching the EU due to its $50 million USD investment into developing an ethical metaverse, where it recently stated “no one company will own and operate the metaverse – it’s key feature will be its openness and interoperability.”
Speaking further, Nick Clegg, VP Global Affairs and Javier Olivan, VP Central Products said,
“European policymakers are leading the way in helping to embed European values like free expression, privacy, transparency and the rights of individuals into the day-to-day workings of the internet. Facebook shares these values and we have taken considerable action over the years to uphold them”
Facebook Business Metaverse, Built with Spatial Data
The news comes as Facebook partner Matterport told XR Today it aims to “change the way we work and live” by developing artificial intelligent (AI) assistants and digital twins for VR spaces.
Matterport engineers are additionally supplying Facebook with digital twins to transfer real-world spaces into a VR social Metaverse platform.
Speaking to XR Today, James Morris-Manuel, Managing Director, Matterport, explained the role of digital twins in the Metaverse and how they can help “businesses soar to new heights,” stating,
“We are already working with Facebook to provide the largest-ever collection of digital twins made up of residential, commercial and civic spaces exclusively for academic purposes”
Zuckerberg to Address the Metaverse
The comments come as Facebook’s Zuckerberg is set to address the Metaverse at the firm’s upcoming 2021 Connect Event on October 28.
Ahead of Zuckerberg’s address, the firm appointed Andrew Bosworth as Vice President of AR and VR to drive the Metaverse transition, who previously worked at Facebook’s Reality Lab to lead key VR initiatives which have helped Oculus become market leaders.
Additionally, Facebook is rolling out a $10 million USD creator fund and accelerator programme to encourage independent VR developers design content for its rebranded Horizons Metaverse platform.
