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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Meta Establishes Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Engineering Hub

04/14/2022
To help build for the metaverse Meta plans to establish a new engineering hub in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company expects to hire up to 2,500 employees for remote and in-office positions over the next five years.

The expanded presence will include establishing the first Canadian WhatsApp, Messenger and Remote Presence engineering teams and growing the Canadian Reality Labs and AI Research teams.

"The metaverse has the potential to unlock access to creative, social and economic opportunities and we want to work closely with Canadians, who are already building for this future, to shape it from the start,' said Garrick Tiplady, Vice President and Country Director at Meta in Canada. "Canada has always been important to Meta. We've helped millions of Canadians and businesses connect, create, and grow and we're looking forward to continuing to support the Canadian economy and innovation ecosystem with these investments."

In addition, Meta announced an additional $510,000 in unrestricted grants to 17 Canadian research labs, working on research that will advance innovations needed to build the metaverse. Unrestricted grants provide maximum flexibility for labs to pursue their mission, and once published, their research becomes publicly accessible to drive further innovation across the industry.

"Our province is home to an incredibly talented workforce, strong postsecondary education sector, and a world-class innovation ecosystem – and Meta's investment in Ontario is proof that all of these things make it the best place for the discovery and development of the technologies of the future," said Vic Fedeli, Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. "This exciting milestone for Meta will mean the creation of new jobs and will strengthen our province's innovation sector, and we congratulate them on this success."

This work builds on the company's investments in the Canadian innovation ecosystem over the years, including the opening of Meta's AI Research Lab in Montreal and Reality Labs Research hub in Toronto, according to company officials. As Meta has built out the Reality Labs Research teams in Canada, it has spent more than $30 million with local Canadian suppliers. In addition, it has provided nearly $1 million of unrestricted funding for Canadian universities from coast to coast.

"Unlocking the full potential of the metaverse will require multiple major technological breakthroughs and collaboration by researchers, industry partners and others all over the world," said Daniel Wigdor, Director of Research Science, Reality Labs Research. "Canadians are already playing an important role developing new technologies to power the metaverse, and we're thrilled to support this work to move the industry closer towards making the metaverse a reality."

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