By Greg Gao

US tech giant Microsoft (China) signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the local government of Kunshan, a city bordering Shanghai in east China’s Jiangsu Province, to launch its first industrial metaverse application center on March 3, JW Insights learned.

The cooperation between the Kunshan government and Microsoft is committed to building an industrial metaverse ecosystem based on Microsoft products and technologies, providing the emerging new technology to enterprises in China, the Kunshan government said.

The local government unveiled Kunshan Industrial Metaverse Application Scenario Ecosystem during the signing ceremony. Microsoft joined hands with three global industry solution providers, Honeywell, Schneider Electric, and KPMG, to build an industrial metaverse ecosystem, and the first batch of ten partners includes Kone Elevator, Voith, and Foxconn. 

Microsoft’s scientific and technological innovation ecosystem partners, such as XR startups Jingteng Tech (境腾科技) and One Vision(一尺视界), also joined the project and signed contracts. 

At the ceremony, the Kunshan High-tech Zone Industrial Metaverse Industry Fund, with an initial scale of RMB1 billion(about $144 million), was established to promote the transformation of Metaverse technology and applications to attract more industrial projects and innovative resources.