We mined Microsoft’s acquisitions, investments, and partnerships to discern the company's strategic priorities for the metaverse.
Microsoft recently announced its plan to purchase gaming company Activision Blizzard for nearly $69B — one of the largest tech acquisitions of all time. The deal will help the tech giant build the foundation for the metaverse, shared worlds driven by highly immersive and interactive virtual products and digital experiences.
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Microsoft was one of the first companies to see the value in virtual worlds, leading to its $2.5B acquisition of Minecraft in 2014. Now, with over $16B in gaming-related revenue generated in 2021, it’s one of the largest gaming companies in the world.
The tech giant has the resources to build cutting-edge technologies that will power the metaverse. For example, Microsoft Hololens is one of the largest augmented reality projects to date. Microsoft is also investing heavily in AI and game development tools through its venture arm, M12.
Using CB Insights data, we uncovered Microsoft’s top 3 strategic metaverse tech priorities highlighted by its acquisitions and partnerships over the last 4 years. We then categorized companies by their business relationships with Microsoft across these priorities:
- Gaming
- Gaming Infrastructure
- Digital Twins
