Qualcomm and Meta have signed a multi-year settlement promising to group up on customized variations of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR chips for the “future roadmap of Quest merchandise” and “different gadgets,” as Mark Zuckerberg put it.
Whereas, in some methods, the transfer is enterprise as typical — the Quest 2 is powered by the Snapdragon XR2 chipset — it may present perception into Meta’s compromises because it faces declines in income and tries to maintain the spiraling bills of Mark’s metaverse undertaking in examine.
What the Qualcomm deal exhibits is that Meta’s upcoming headsets, which reportedly embrace a high-end headset codenamed Cambria and, later, new variations of its cheaper Quest headset, will not run on utterly custom-made Meta-designed silicon.
That is regardless of competing firms like Apple, Amazon, and Google making product selections round customized chip designs like M2, Graviton3, and Tensor — and the truth that Meta’s had a group devoted to doing the identical since 2018. This press launch says the chips might be “custom-made” for Meta’s wants. Nonetheless, we do not understand how a lot house that may put between its “premium” gadgets and different producers’ {hardware} that hews intently to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR reference designs.
In April, The Verge reported that Meta staff had been working with semiconductor fabs — the businesses that truly produce the bodily chips — to make customized chips for its as-of-yet unannounced AR headset. That very same month, The Info reported that a few of Meta’s efforts to create customized chips had been hitting roadblocks, pushing it to make use of a Qualcomm chip for its second-gen Ray-Bay good glasses as an alternative of its personal silicon.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23576037/image__2_.png)
Tyler Yee, a Meta spokesperson, mentioned that the corporate does not focus on particulars about how its roadmap has developed and would not touch upon any particular plans it might have had for customized chips for Quest merchandise. Nonetheless, Yee did share a press release on the corporate’s “basic strategy to customized silicon,” saying that Meta does not consider in a “one-size-fits-all strategy” for the tech powering its future gadgets.
“There might be conditions the place we use off-the-shelf silicon or work with trade companions on customizations, whereas additionally exploring our personal novel silicon options. There is also situations the place we use each companion and customized options in the identical product,” he mentioned. “It’s all about doing what is required to create one of the best metaverse experiences doable.”
The backdrop to all this can be a firm dealing with loads of strain. Meta’s income has dipped for the primary time (thanks partly to Apple’s adjustments to how apps are allowed to trace customers), and Zuckerberg explicitly acknowledged plans to show up the warmth on staff whereas admitting, “I believe a few of you may simply say that this place is not for you. And that self-selection is okay with me.” On the identical time, he is making an enormous guess on the metaverse — the corporate is spending, and shedding, billions of {dollars} per yr on the undertaking, which incorporates AR and VR headsets.
It is a high-stakes sport that Meta would presumably wish to play as near the chest as doable. However for now, it appears the {hardware} prospects entry Zuckerberg’s Metaverse with (if they are going to do this in any respect, as an alternative of simply taking part in Beat Saber) will stay powered by someone else’s chips.