Silicon Valley tech firm Meta is doling out sizeable grants to companies that are using its AI glasses, as per an official press release on Tuesday. The grants are being given to help scale—and in select cases, further innovate upon—what is one of Meta’s newest product lines.
The initiative suggests Meta is more keen to get a foothold in the AI sector by distributing cash to companies interested in advancing the presence of its glasses in the market.
Alongside Apple, Mark Zuckerberg’s company is a laggard in the AI race, behind technology firms such as Google and NVIDIA, which are developing AI-based applications and products at a rapid pace.
Meta’s AI glasses are priced anywhere from $300 to $500, emblazoned with Ray Ban branding and available for purchase from Ray Ban’s e-commerce site, with “next-gen AI” listed as one of the main features.
A total of 30 grants will be given under the program; 25 of which are called accelerator grants for companies that will scale the product, and the remaining 5 are called ‘catalyst grants’ for companies that can demonstrate an innovative use-case for the glasses through the use of Meta’s wearables toolkit.
The amounts to be given under the grants program are as follows:
- 15 accelerator grants, each valued at $25,000
- 10 accelerator grants, each valued at $50,000
- 5 catalysts grants, each valued at $200,000
Combined, the total amount is $1.875 million.
“Whether you’re a two-person start-up organizing beach clean-ups or a multistate business using our glasses to support accessibility, we want to hear from you,” read the official statement.
At the time of writing, Meta shares were trading at $608.50.