According to former Microsoft employees quoted in the Wall Street Journal, over 100 staff departed the tech giant’s augmented reality business in the previous year to join Meta Platforms. According to them, Meta has been particularly interested in hiring employees who have worked on Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented reality (AR) devices.
Because of Microsoft’s first-mover advantage in the AR space, its workers are key assets to Meta. Microsoft revealed its HoloLens project in 2016, and the technology has since evolved into one of the world’s most advanced headsets.
According to Bloomberg, Apple is aiming to prevent potential personnel exodus to Meta by giving generous stock options and incentives between $50,000 to $180,000. The incentives were given to a group of engineers in silicon design, hardware, and certain software operations personnel in late December 2021.
