Qualcomm and Microsoft are partnering to develop a brand new, custom-made Snapdragon augmented actuality chip that’ll energy future AR glasses inside Microsoft’s ecosystems. The new partnership was introduced at Qualcomm’s CES 2022 keynote.

“We’re announcing that we’re developing a custom augmented reality Snapdragon chip for next-generation, power-efficient, very lightweight AR glasses for the Microsoft ecosystem,” stated Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon. “And we’re integrating into that chip platform software from both companies: the Microsoft Mesh platform, and the recently announced Qualcomm Snapdragon Spaces XR development platform. Snapdragon Spaces will be fully integrated into Microsoft Mesh, and this platform will be available for next-generation lightweight glasses.”

The partnership isn’t too stunning: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 850 chip already powers Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 headset from 2019. And Qualcomm has solely elevated its focus and its improvement of extra particularly AR and VR targeted chips lately, together with the Snapdragon XR2 that powers the Oculus Quest 2. Microsoft and Qualcomm have additionally labored collectively on bespoke chips prior to now, just like the Surface Pro X’s custom-made SQ1 and SQ2 processors.

The inclusion of assist for each Microsoft Mesh and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Spaces XR platform is especially notable, too. Both platforms provide attention-grabbing blended actuality use instances that span a number of gadgets. Mesh already has a cross-platform VR / AR system for connecting between digital actuality headsets, tablets, smartphones, and PCs, whereas Spaces goals to particularly combine Qualcomm-powered smartphones as a “second screen” for blended actuality experiences. And provided that Qualcomm particularly highlighted the upcoming chip collaboration as specializing in ultra-light augmented actuality glasses, it appears clear that the 2 corporations have large ambitions for integrating future initiatives right into a broader, linked digital world.