Some of the companies on this list build and sell finished VR hardware products. However, companies that supply essential technologies to hardware manufacturers are equally important. For this reason, Nvidia (NVDA +1.30%) is a top choice when it comes to VR stocks because it's the leading designer of graphics processing units (GPUs) for PCs and game consoles.
For more advanced VR applications -- not just video games -- Nvidia's VR-specific GeForce GTX GPUs are doing a lot of work. Developers can also use the company's software developer kit (SDK), called VRWorks. Whether it's for hardware or for applications, developers can use the SDK to make images, sounds, and touch interactions more realistic for the VR world.
Given the graphics-intensive nature of virtual reality, Nvidia is poised to benefit, regardless of which company's hardware winds up becoming the industry standard.
6. Unity Software