Hon Hai Technology Group (鴻海科技集團) yesterday said that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with XRSpace Holding Ltd to make a US$100 million equity investment in the electronics manufacturing service provider’s metaverse technology projects.

As a part of the broader investment, Hon Hai Technology yesterday spent US$15 million subscribing to 28.23 million special shares of XRSpace, it said in a statement submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

The initial investment would give Hon Hai Technology a roughly 9 percent share of XRSpace, the statement said.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is a major iPhone assembler and the flagship subsidiary of the group.

“We are thrilled to partner with XRSpace and we envision that this partnership will enhance software technology, delivering a holistic metaverse hardware and software ecosystem,” Hon Hai Precision Industry chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said in a joint statement.

“Foxconn’s approach toward the metaverse is the same as that for electric vehicles — we will provide our expertise within the framework rather than solely focusing on the end product,” Liu said.

Founded in 2017, XRSpace is focused on building the metaverse, with features including shareable 3D space, social interaction for user groups or virtual people, and instant 3D interaction across hardware devices, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, mobile phones and tablets.

“This strategic partnership is not just about making our metaverse experiences better and stronger, Foxconn will also help us a lot with global market development,” XRSpace chairman and chief executive officer Peter Chou (周永明) said in the statement.

XRSpace focuses on two anchor metaverse products: PartyOn, a social music metaverse, and GOXR, which enables enterprise and creative industries to create their own metaverse experiences.

The partnership with Hon Hai would enable XRSpace to build the infrastructure needed to make further inroads into the metaverse and continue to optimize its products, the statement said.
 

●Origin：Taipei Times By Lisa Wang
●Link：https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2022/02/23/2003773582