The rise of the metaverse could usher in a new age of commerce and socialization in virtual worlds. This potentially revolutionary trend is just starting to unfold, and businesses and investors alike are scrambling to get in on the ground floor.
As an emerging medium, it's fair to say the metaverse is a relatively high-risk investment category, but people who back the right companies and projects could go on to enjoy stellar returns over the long term. With that in mind, read on for a look at three top metaverse stocks that are worth adding to your portfolio before the month is out.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Meta Platforms
If you had to pick just one company that appears to be positioning itself to lead the charge on the metaverse, Meta Platforms (META -1.12%) would have to be as strong a choice as any. The company's belief in virtual worlds as a major step forward and revolutionary opportunity is so strong that CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his company opted to change the business's name from Facebook to one that reflects its big new growth bet.
Meta Platforms' incredible resources and massive active user base give the company strong foundations to launch its metaverse projects. Between Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, the company operates some of the world's most popular social media and communications platforms. The company ended its last quarter with 3.6 billion monthly active users -- good for roughly 45% of the world's population.
In addition to its massive reach and development resources, Meta Platforms has also been an early mover in the metaverse. Even before the term "metaverse" entered into the popular lexicon, the company was eyeing virtual reality (VR) as the next revolutionary computing platform. The tech giant's VR division is at the forefront of hardware (through its Oculus headsets) and software in the category, and the company's big acquisitions should help solidify its leadership position in interactive virtual content and services.
2. Unity Software
Creating immersive virtual worlds is a complex process, but Unity Software (U -0.92%) offers software that can make it much easier. The company provides a development engine for video games and interactive experiences, and it's poised to help usher in the age of the metaverse. With Unity's tools and services, even relatively small teams can craft engaging visuals and worlds that go on to be enjoyed by a wide audience.
Unity has already emerged as a go-to development engine for the creation of AR (augmented reality) and VR experiences, with roughly 60% of applications in the combined categories using its tools. Roughly 71% of this year's top 1,000 mobile games were also built using the company's development resources.
Unity managed to grow sales 43% year over year in its most recently reported quarter, particularly impressive because it was lapping a year of explosive growth in 2020. As demand for metaverse content and services increases, Unity looks uniquely well-positioned to help a wide variety of businesses find success in the emerging medium.
3. Nvidia
Whether through local devices or cloud-based computing platforms, powerful computing hardware is going to play a big role in the evolution of the metaverse. Nvidia (NVDA -3.87%) is the leading provider of graphics processing units (GPUs), and the semiconductor specialist will likely be a key components provider for the evolution of virtual worlds.
In addition to its hardware business, Nvidia is also positioning itself to benefit from the metaverse trend with its Omniverse software platform. Omniverse is a development, productivity, and sharing service tailored for the creation of metaverse experiences, which could turn into a major performance driver for the company.
Nvidia is already generating very strong margins and looks poised to retain its leadership position in the GPU space. The addition of a substantial software-as-a-service (SaaS) component to its business model could add a major new source of revenue and push its margins even higher.
Because of long-term growth opportunities for the company's processors in the gaming, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machine vision fields, the graphics specialist already had a promising outlook, and the rise of the metaverse is presenting another potentially explosive growth opportunity.
