Last week, Meta announced that it had chosen Spain to spearhead its Metaverse ambitions and enhance its existing mixed reality (VR) platforms, including Horizon Worlds, Workrooms, and Venues.
As part of its European expansion, Meta is developing new high-skilled jobs, supporting local entrepreneurs and tech businesses, as well as investing in digital infrastructures.
In a Linkedin update, Meta’s Vice President of Cross-Meta Products and Infrastructure, Javier Olivan, said,
“I believe Spain can be at the forefront of European tech and [Spain] is already building strong tech hubs with plenty of entrepreneurial and tech talent throughout the country. This is why we are putting Spain at the heart of our companys future, with a significant investment in people and infrastructure.”
Big Investment Plans
Meta is investing in highly-skilled jobs in the Spanish region, and according to Olivan, the Menlo Park-based firm will recruit roughly 2,000 individuals over the next five years as well as construct the “world’s first” Meta Lab in Madrid during the recruitment stage.
The Meta Lab will provide a physical space for remote workers to gather and receive support from local tech start-ups and entrepreneurs. Meta is also creating a new data centre in Castilla La Mancha.
The company is also building the “world’s first” petabit sub-sea cable to improve local digital infrastructures — this will also boost the connectivity for the entire local tech sector, added Olivan.
The Vice-President added,
“We’re helping build the Metaverse, a new phase of the internet, built around interconnected virtual experiences that can unlock access to new creative social and economic opportunities”
Meta Quest users can access the Horizon Metaverse platform via Venues and Workrooms on the Oculus app store. The news comes after Meta launched Horizon Worlds for select users in the United States (US) and Canada in December last year.
Expanding into Europe
According to an official blog post, Meta’s expansion will enable collaboration between local academia and government bodies.
The news comes after Meta pledged to roughly 10,000 employees from the European Union (EU) to help the firm develop its Horizon Metaverse platform.
Despite this, Meta faces challenges in its journey to develop solutions for the Metaverse in the EU after threatening for a second time to withdraw from the EU if regulators failed to allow the company to transfer user data to the US.
Meta’s challenges occurred while Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, urged EU representatives to learn more about the Metaverse before building regulatory frameworks.
