🤩 TOP 4 Metaverse Stocks to Buy Now! (Beating Meta & Facebook Stock)

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When you think about the Metaverse, you're probably thinking that it's in the distant
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future, slowly being built by some of the biggest corporations in the world.
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Trillion-dollar companies with secret underground labs, researching all the
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different ways they can make money off the internet and the people using it. Or maybe
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you think the whole Metaverse thing is just some sort of gimmick; a scheme put together by video
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game companies and the entertainment industry to pump up sales of virtual reality headsets
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and the low-budget experiences they run. This episode isn't about Facebook or Meta, and it's
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definitely not about Mark Zuckerburg's idea of, uh, whatever this is. [Tiger and the Buffalo Art]
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I want to show you a different side of virtual reality. In this episode,
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I'll show you the current state of the art tech
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and some of the publicly traded companies using it to make the world a better place today,
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including some that ARK Invest doesn't hold, at least not yet. Your time is valuable,
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so let's get right into it, starting with the actual state of the art and how it got here.
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You're probably already familiar with virtual reality, or VR, which requires a headset
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device to immerse you in a completely virtual setting. And you're probably also familiar with
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augmented reality, or AR, which overlays digital objects and information onto the
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shared reality we call the physical world. That means you can use it with smartphones, tablets,
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and even hands-free glasses. But there's another application called mixed reality – not AR, not VR,
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but MR – where physical and digital objects and environments can co-exist and interact in
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real-time. This isn't the distant future. It's the state of the art in engineering and design today,
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from architecture to aerospace to automotive. All kinds of new products and services are made
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possible by mixed-reality technologies. On the software side, mixed reality drastically increases
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productivity and reduces time to value for one simple reason: people can create organically,
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using their hands, instead of having to learn industry-specific software, tools, and processes.
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Designers can swap parts and make adjustments to a model by interacting with it in mixed reality
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and the modeling software translates and tracks those changes in the background. We'll get back
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to these companies later in the episode. On the hardware side, full visual immersion has
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already been reached, although it does have a pretty big catch: we're only
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talking about objects that can be made to look photorealistic with industrial-grade software.
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So we're not talking about giant robots or epic space battles, or even human faces just yet.
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It's important to talk about VR headsets because nothing else really matters if you don't believe
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they're getting close to being ready for prime time. They're actually a lot further
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along than most people think. Heck, they're a lot further along than most experts think.
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Here's what ARK Invest has to say about the state of virtual reality and visual immersion.
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According to their 2021 Big Ideas Report, the best-in-class VR headsets today achieve only
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10% of human visual immersion. If consumer VR is limited to the console gaming market,
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ARK Invest believes that fully immersive VR headsets won't reach mass-market adoption
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in the same way that cell phones have. And to reach that level of complete visual immersion at
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a reasonable price, VR headsets basically need to follow the same adoption curve as the cell phone
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for the next 10 years – from now, until 2030. Yikes! Well, let me show you that consumer VR
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may not be limited to the console gaming market for too much longer. This is the Varjo XR headset.
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It uses two 12 megapixel cameras to pass video of the real world into the headset displays.
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It also has about the same color range as the real world, so photorealism isn't lost
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thanks to off-colors or limited lighting and rendering capabilities. The Varjo XR
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headset uses a built-in LIDAR to calculate the range of real objects in the environment
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and decide how to scale the virtual objects in it, so there's no object jitter or flickering.
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It has integrated hand and eye-tracking to keep interactions as natural and fluid as possible.
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This blows the doors off industrial use-cases because you can bring physical objects into the
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digital space. For example, pilots can bring real checklists to a flight simulator and use
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their real hands to check things off as they go, as opposed to the VR controllers we're thinking of
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for video games. Or, they can sit in a real cockpit but fly a simulated flight with the
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aircraft turned completely off. Can you tell what part of this scene is fake? Well, it's actually
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the entire scene. That's the power of mixed reality. And of course, that power can be used
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to simulate computer monitors or screens of any size and shape. Think about all of the different
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devices with screens you have today. Your phone, your TV, your laptop or desktop computer, maybe
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an extra monitor or a tablet off to the side. Why not just digitally simulate whatever computer and
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displays you want depending on the physical environment you're actually in at the time?
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The possibilities are endless AND more convenient; after all, this headset is smaller than your
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physical laptop. The only problem is… the Varjo XR-3 headset is almost $8000. [disc scratch] These
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things are basically the Tesla Roadster of headsets. That's actually what stopped me
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from making this episode sooner. ARK Invest is right; no one except the wealthiest enthusiasts
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can afford these things right now, so they'll never reach mass-market adoption at this rate.
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But, just like Tesla keeps innovating and has moved downmarket since the Roadster,
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Varjo just released a $2000 dollar version of its headset, called the Aero. While the Aero strips
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out a lot of the industrial-grade features like the pass-through cameras and the LIDAR, it doesn't
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lose any of the VR functionality from Varjo's $8000 XR-3 headset. That means industrial-grade VR
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is now available at around the same price point as a flagship smartphone and costs will only continue
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to decline over time, just like Tesla's cars and personal computers and laptops and cell phones.
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ThrillSeeker is a great YouTuber who focuses on all things virtual and augmented reality. Here
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are some of his first impressions of the Varjo Aero VR headset. [ThrillSeeker Clips with Audio]
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If you're interested in learning more about the state of the art of AR and VR, Thrill Seeker is
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a great channel to follow. I'll leave a link to his deep dives on Varjo in the description below.
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Hopefully, you're starting to see that the state-of-the-art for VR is being pushed forward by
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industrial applications, not just video games, and amazing hardware is quickly coming down in cost,
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which will drive consumer adoption way up. As a fellow investor, I think seeing this context is
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really valuable, so I appreciate you sticking with me so far. Varjo isn't a publicly-traded company,
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at least not yet, so let's talk about the companies that are. I think there are three kinds
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of companies that are important to industrial VR. The first kind focuses on the infrastructure.
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Not just headsets but virtual collaboration environments and platforms. The second kind
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focuses on digitizing physical stuff — they scan objects and environments in the real world and let
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people interact with their digital twin. The third kind focuses on designing physical stuff — they
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let people build objects and environments in a digital world and then produce their physical
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twin, which usually ends up being a product. Together, these types of companies are great
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long-term investments today because they offer state-of-the-art products and services right now.
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Those offerings will scale very well into the metaverse as VR technology continues to mature
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and become more affordable but doesn't rely on that idea to succeed. So, if you want to
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bet on the Metaverse but against Facebook and Meta Platforms, these stocks are a great way to do it.
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Let's start with Nvidia, ticker symbol N V D A. Nvidia makes the GeForce line of graphics cards,
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as well as tons of enterprise hardware and software for every type of artificial intelligence
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application you can think of. They also build the superpods, which are their commercially
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available supercomputers specifically designed for artificial intelligence, as well as their DGX
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station, which is their server solution for data centers. In my opinion, these machines or machines
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like them will run a serious portion of the metaverse. Last week, NVidia held their annual GPU
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Technology Conference, or GTC, where they heavily featured their Omniverse initiative. [Short clip
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of Jensen Huang] The Omniverse is a scalable, real-time development platform for collaborative
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3D design and simulation. At the foundation of the Omniverse is Pixar's open-source USD, which stands
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for universal scene description. This layer allows large groups of people to work simultaneously
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across multiple software applications on a shared 3D scene, whether it's an automotive factory floor
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or the set of a movie. This open standard foundation gives software partners multiple
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ways to extend and connect to Omniverse, whether through USD adoption and support, or building a
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plugin, or via an Omniverse Connector. That means Nvidia's Omniverse is an ecosystem of
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development tools and assets that grows whenever a partner adds functionality to it. For example,
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Apple, Pixar, and NVIDIA have collaborated to bring advanced physics capabilities to USD.
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NVIDIA and Adobe are collaborating on a Substance 3D plugin that will unlock new material editing
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abilities for Omniverse and Substance 3D users. The list goes on and on, but the point is this
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Omniverse ecosystem is already connecting leaders from every industry to be more than the sum of
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its parts, which means it will gain all sorts of customers and use-cases in the future. Lockheed
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Martin is working with Omniverse to develop strategies for wildfire simulation, prediction,
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emergency response planning, and fire suppression efforts. Even South Park, which is obviously the
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greatest television show of all time, is exploring Omniverse to enable several of its artists
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to simultaneously collaborate on scenes and optimize their insanely limited production time.
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Next on the list is Matterport, ticker symbol M T T R. As their name suggests, they focus on
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porting physical matter into the digital world. More specifically, Matterport creates digital 3D
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models of buildings and spaces for a wide variety of applications. For example, real estate firms
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can offer virtual tours, and construction firms can assess the progress of their current projects.
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Architects and engineers can streamline documentation and collaborate directly within
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a correctly-scaled 3d model of a project, instead of across a lot of different pieces of software.
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The 3D digital reconstruction market is largely unpenetrated so Matterport enjoys a huge
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first-mover advantage. In act, they have around 100 times more spaces mapped than the rest of
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the market combined. They have a fully automated end-to-end digitization process that works with a
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wide variety of compatible capture devices, including their own cameras as well as cell
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phone cameras thanks to their android and iPhone apps. Their revenue increasingly comes from their
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free-to-paid subscription model, where a team of 2 can digitize a space with their phones for free.
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Then, if customers want to scale up their team, digitize more spaces,
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use better cameras, or export their data in a wide variety of technical formats,
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they have to upgrade to a paid monthly plan. That makes Matterport very scaleable to businesses
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of all sizes, from individual projects all the way up to enterprise clients who
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want to use Matterports integrations with other Building Information Modeling tools like Revit.
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Speaking of Revit, the third stock on the list is Autodesk, ticker symbol A D S K. One of
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the other big growth drivers for AutoCAD right now is Revit, which is a leading tool for BIM,
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or building information modeling. Building Information Modeling is the process of creating
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and managing information for a built asset, like a building. The model integrates different kinds
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of data, including the structure of the asset, to produce a digital representation of the asset
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across its entire lifecycle, from planning and design, to construction, operations, and
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maintenance. BIM is quickly becoming mandated for large civil engineering projects around the world,
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which is really good for Autodesk in general and Revit specifically. That's one reason Matterport
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integrates with it. Autodesk is also famous for making AutoCAD. C A D stands for computer-aided
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design and AutoCAD is one of the industry standards in infrastructure, architecture,
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city planning, and product design. Chances are, the device you're watching this video on was
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designed in or at least mocked up in AutoCAD. But Autodesk makes much more than AutoCAD.
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They also make 3DS Max and Maya, which are visual effects software suites used in Hollywood
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Blockbusters like Pixar's Monster's Inc, as well as triple-A video games like the Uncharted series,
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Call of Duty, and even Halo. So, regardless of your opinion on the future of the internet
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and the Metaverse, Autodesk is already positioned for long-term success. It has in-demand products
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that are leaders in their respective industries – AutoCAD for drafting and design, 3DS Max and Maya
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for visual arts and effects, and Revit for building information modeling. By the way,
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Autodesk is one of the companies currently connecting to Nvidia's omniverse.
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And finally, we have Unity Software, ticker symbol U, which allows developers to create
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2D and 3D interactive experiences for every type of platform, including PCs and Macs,
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gaming consoles, and mobile devices. Unity's solutions are very scaleable;
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they support everyone from huge studios that make multiplayer games requiring powerful computers
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all the way down to individual creators who just want to make
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a simple mobile game. Unity's platform follows a develop-once-deploy-everywhere model where
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creators can deploy their work to Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo, MacOS and iOS, and Android and
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Windows. This is a big selling point. That means different operating systems and device makers
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need to enter into long-term partnerships with Unity Software, to ensure that creators don't have
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to learn to write any extra code just to get their projects onto one specific platform. As a result,
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Unity's platform has become an industry-standard content creation tool. By their own estimates,
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over half of the top 1,000 mobile games in Apple’s App Store and on Google Play
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have been created using Unity’s solutions. Their primary audience right now is game developers, but
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they're extending their development ecosystem to support much more than just video games. In fact,
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Unity has been used to develop nearly 60% percent of ALL AR and VR content, and something like 90%
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percent of the content on emerging AR platforms is made using the Unity engine. They are consistently
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investing to expand their platforms to cater to industries like architecture
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and engineering 3D designs, automotive designs, 3D film, and animation creation. Importantly,
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Unity Software's biggest competitor is Unreal Engine, which is owned by Epic Games, the company
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that makes Fortnite. Epic Games, and thus Unreal Engine, are not publicly traded. I think that's
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why Cathie Wood has over 1.5 billion dollars in Unity Software stock today, making it ARK Invest's
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4th biggest position overall. Interestingly enough, ARK Invest doesn't have a position Nvidia,
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Matterport, or Autodesk but they haven't really published anything that suggests why.
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So, comment below or tweet me at Ticker Symbol YOU with your thoughts on the current state of
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VR and these companies that are connecting the physical and digital world. Do you think
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the companies I talked about will be key to the Metaverse or is a different one at the
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top of your list? Do you think these companies will continue to succeed even if the metaverse
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never becomes a reality? I'm excited to hear your thoughts. As for me, Nvidia and Unity
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Software are both already in my 100,000 dollar portfolio on Public dot com. I'm building that
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portfolio from scratch to compete directly with ARKK, ARK Invest's flagship innovation fund,
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which also holds a lot of Unity stock. If you're interested in following that investing project,
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consider liking this video and subscribing to the channel with all notifications turned on. That
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way, you'll be the first to know when I come out with more coverage like this, as well as exactly
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what I'm putting in that portfolio each month. I've actually invested about $30,000 already,
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which has been especially exciting during this choppy earnings season. So, if you'd like access
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to my trades as they happen instead of waiting for my monthly portfolio episode, consider supporting
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the channel as an Insider-tier Patron on Patreon or channel member right here on YouTube. AND,
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whether you're looking for a new home for your own portfolio or you just want a different way
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slices of stocks for as little as one dollar. So that free slice of stock when you fund your
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account is a win-win if I've ever heard one. I'll leave a link to that exclusive offer for you in
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the description below as well. Thanks for watching and until next time, this is Ticker Symbol You.
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My name is Alex, reminding you that the best investment you can make… is in you.