Metaverse Digest: New focus for Niantic, NVIDIA expands Omniverse partnerships

Conceiving of the metaverse solely as a virtual space populated by player avatars belies deep changes in how humans and machines interact with each other and the world. Channels for consumer interaction in virtual environments continue to grow, with metaverse hubs such as Roblox Corp.'s Roblox and Epic Games Inc.'s Fortnite part of the multibillion-dollar games sector. Industrial and enterprise use of spatial computing as a base for AI-powered autonomous robotics spans virtual simulations, digital twins and geo-mapping, and these elements are as much a part of the metaverse as are avatars in virtual worlds. This roundup of metaverse moves includes consumer, enterprise and industrial developments to help understand the important intersections, as well as financial and societal implications.

Infinite Reality Inc. continues to build its metaverse capabilities to help enterprises reach new customers through well-known brands. NVIDIA Corp. is at the center of the industrial metaverse with its partnerships and adoption of Omniverse and OpenUSD. Niantic Inc. is focusing on the market for geospatial data capture and infrastructure for layers of data in the world in enterprise and industrial contexts. Deloitte, while not using the word metaverse, is using the same sort of virtual-world simulation and integration with AI and real-time data for enterprises as we see in the world of industrial metaverse using AI and internet of things. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of 1,000 industrial respondents are already engaging in this space, according to the S&P Global 2024 Worldwide Metaverse Enterprise Survey. The metaverse is still evolving, and it is powered by AI. Buzzwords and tech bubbles aside, stakeholders in industrial and enterprise sectors must adapt and capitalize on emerging opportunities. Alongside these developments, we have Minecraft — a culturally significant metaverse environment that has grown its influence over the past 16 years — generating viral memes and social engagement from a boisterous and highly sought-after teenage audience.

Infinite Reality adds 3D immersive business application services to Google Cloud Store

In January 2025, Infinite Reality (founded in 2019) raised an extra $3 billion of private investment, to reach a total valuation of $12.25 billion. In 2024, the company signed a five-year deal with Google Cloud and spent $250 million to purchase Drone Racing League Inc.; $75 million for Ethereal Engine, Action Face Inc. and Stakes; and $450 million on Landvault, which is now called iR Enterprise. The company also bought AR brand company Obsess Inc. in early 2025. The iR Enterprise application and consulting services form the basis for its Google Cloud Store offering. The company creates digital twins of real-world locations, as well as new virtual environments for events and experiences, and offers AI assistants for site visitors. This design-led service allows enterprises and brands to own their data and customer base. For those looking to build environments themselves, the company has iR Studio for no-code creation of 3D websites. Harking back to the roots of online streaming and peer-to-peer music sharing, Infinite Reality also recently bought up Napster Music Inc. for $207 million.

Niantic sells successful AR gaming arm to focus on enterprise infrastructure for spatial computing

As we described in our recent report, Niantic is selling its AR gaming division, producer of long-running consumer-facing physical/virtual world blended games such as Pokémon Go, to Scopely Inc. for $3.85 billion. Newly established spinoff Niantic Spatial is focusing on the capture, mapping and integration of the physical world with AR elements. The company sees this as a major growth area in many industry verticals, such as logistics, manufacturing, tourism and education. Its mapping and spatial platform tools will continue to underpin the offerings of clients such as Scopely.

NVIDIA expands its partnerships for Omniverse

A new group of companies announced adoption of Omniverse, the underpinning of industrial metaverse from NVIDIA that the company now refers to as its Physical AI operating system. Foxconn, General Motors Co., Hyundai Motor Co., KION Group, Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Pegatron Corp. and Schaeffler have adopted the ecosystem for industrial transformation. Other companies including Accenture PLC, ANSYS Inc., Cadence, Databricks Inc., Dematic Corp., Hexagon AB, OMRON Corp., SAP SE, Schneider Electric SE combined with ETAP, and Siemens AG all provide connection of Omniverse to other software tools including adopting the OpenUSD standard framework. NVIDIA also announced new blueprints for robot-ready factories and generation of large-scale simulations connected to NVIDIA Cosmos, which provides a world foundation model for simulation in Omniverse.

Deloitte expands its AI enterprise simulation center-of-excellence approach

Launching first in Bengaluru, India, as part of an ongoing five-year investment of $3 billion in generative AI, Deloitte's Global AI Simulation Center of Excellence is aimed at helping the company's clients make decisions, mitigate risk and improve processes and ROI. The center uses advanced visualization, digital twins, multi-agent systems and scenario modeling with real-time data to achieve its goal. Simulation approaches encompass physical-world environments such as warehouse automation and logistics, as well as supply chain optimization; processes within enterprise systems applying agentic AI; people, for workforce planning and understanding user interfaces to systems; and strategy, looking at a range of industry-specific approaches to set a client's direction.

Epic Games buys Loci for AI-based 3D content understanding and tagging

Epic Games plans to integrate Loci Sports Ltd.'s AI-powered computer vision capabilities to identify and tag 3D content. Its similarity detection function can also spot intellectual property violations and augment moderation capabilities in large user-generated content ecosystems such as Epic's Fortnite. Loci will be implemented in Epic's digital marketplace Fab to index custom assets in Unreal Editor for Fortnite.

S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan estimates metaverse revenue grew 31% in 2024 to $25.22 billion

Kagan states a wave of pricey new interface hardware entered the market, growing that segment alone by $4.27 billion compared to 2023. Advanced VR headsets boosted the topline in 2024, but that growth story may be waning. It has been more than a year since the release of the Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro headsets, and with tariffs roiling markets, it will be difficult for vendors to launch new hardware. Gaming revenue was the second-biggest growth story for the metaverse in 2024 with a 23.9% boost to $7.92 billion. Metaverse gaming was still growing through the fourth quarter but at a diminished rate compared to prior periods. As user acquisition opportunities start to fray, top platforms will need to expand their monetization strategies to keep the rally going. The soft spot for the metaverse was commercial software and services, which grew a more modest 2.1% year over year to $7.59 billion. AI has taken up most of the oxygen in industrial and enterprise spending. And while we believe the AI boom has fed into digital twins, avatars and 3D asset generation, that is only a fraction of the overall AI picture.

Minecraft movie releases and gains viral TikTok audience reactions

In 2009, Markus Persson released an initial version of the explorable, buildable virtual-world environment Minecraft. It bucked the trend of photorealism for a more block-based, Lego-like visual aesthetic. The beta release generated $33 million in revenue from 1 million sales. Persson continued development alongside Jens Bergensten, with Mojang Studios releasing a 1.0 version in 2011. In 2014, Microsoft Corp. bought Minecraft for $2.5 billion. The game and its aesthetics are now well known, and generations of players have engaged with the platform, including in an educational context through its use in schools. This long-running popularity led to the recently released film A Minecraft Movie starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa. Raucous audience reactions, including shouting catchphrases such as "Chicken Jockey!" and throwing popcorn and drinks in the air, have been captured and shared via TikTok and other social media, causing theaters to warn against the behavior. In the broader spirit of the metaverse, this story illustrates the blending and bridging of the virtual and physical worlds and resulting social and cultural impacts.

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