When you want to invest in the metaverse, one can go direcltly for obvious players such as Roblox. But maybe it makes also sense to look at those companies who make the stuff which will be needed to build the metaverse and to keep it running. Think about the gold rush, one could have invested in a mining operation, but maybe it was more durable and profitable to invest in the equipment providers.
Equipment will be needed. Having hundreds of millions people wanting a seamless realtime experience, events with millions of concurrent realtime multimedia-streams, all this requires ultra-fast high capacity internet. Think not of just 5G but of 6G which is still years away.
Let's have a look at the hardware side of things. - Nvidia: see Intro to investing in the metaverse. They have a metaverse for 2D and 3D-buiders, called Oniverse, and they are champions in chips for gaming, artificial intelligence, crypto mining and so on.
- Cloudfare: web infrastructure and website security company that provides content delivery network and DDoS mitigation services. "We believe that we can be one of the many technical platforms that supports Web3 and the growing Metaverse ecosystem. It’s why we are so excited to be announcing the private beta of our Ethereum and IPFS gateways", they write on their blog 
.
- All the stuff needed for producing headsets. Among the major manufacturers are Meta (Quest), HTC (Vive), Microsoft (Hololens) and Sony. Snap and Meta are developing and marketing AR-glasses. The world waits for a headset made by Apple. Also Tencent recently did an acquisition in order to start manufacturing headsets. There are more niche players such as the Finnish company Varjo which specializes in high-end professional headsets.
Software:
- Unity Software: a development platform for 2D and 3D. Used by many developers for content creation, especially for mobile and VR.
- Unreal Engine: development platform for 2D and 3D. I hear from developers that they prefer using this for more sophisticated graphics, such as for making digital twins of high-end fashion and luxury products. Owned by Epic Games that also run the game and social world Fortnite. - Roblox: this platform where often very young developers create their own games and environments is often considered as a kind of proto-metaverse. It enables the users to build their own stuff without having to use Unity or Unreal Engine.
- Minecraft: these days part of the Microsoft-empire, it allows its users to create and build their own worlds.
- Linden Lab: known for having launched Second Life in 2003, this is yet another place where people can build and create their own environments.
E-commerce, content, social.
- One can consider most gaming companies.