HTC Vive announces $10B initiative — the VR Venture Capital Alliance

Though the move does not bring about any major alterations for Vive, it does lead to additional protection for the Vive unit in case the remaining company goes bankrupt. However, now that it has spun off its Vive business and VR itself has received such strong backing, there is greater assurance that the Vive headset will be supported in the future. It has even announced a new entity called VR Venture Capital Alliance to invest in VR research and development.

The VR-ready computers, which allows users to connect HTC Vive headset and provides full VR experiences, will become much cheaper soon, analysts said. This will enable HTC to sign contracts with other companies freely, as third-parties would now only be exposed to risks associated to the Vive VR business. Namely, Vive is launching the VR Venture Capital Alliance “to foster long-term growth in the VR industry” through strategic investments. So some of the biggest investors in the space have decided the best way for it grow is for them to pool their resources in order to plunk down the money required to take it where it needs to go. We have since updated this article to reflect this.

Reading between the lines, what this says is that HTC’s overall reputation isn’t as good as that of the Vive headset, and the company wants to detach the ailing aspects of its business (i.e. everything else) from any potential Vive deals.

HTC has seen its share of ups and downs and CEO shuffles in the past few years.

The VRVCA partners will meet every two months in SF and Beijing. Pitch decks must be submitted via the alliance’s website beforehand. The venture organization has $10 billion in funding to invest in augmented and virtual reality projects.