Goertek may not be a household name, but the China-based company is looking to gear up its manufacturing lines to produce a surprising number of VR/AR headsets and lenses soon.

Goertek recently announced a ¥4 billion (~$572 million USD) convertible corporate bond offering, one quarter of which will be invested in the company’s VR/AR manufacturing capabilities, the company says. The news was first reported by Yivian (Chinese).

Yivian notes that Goertek also hopes to push production of VR/AR devices to 3.5 million more units annually, and increase output of “precision optical lenses and module products” by an annual amount of 5 million units.

Goertek statement indicating ~$142 million USD to “AR/VR and related optical modules” | Image courtesy Goertek, via Yivian

Goertek may not be well known to consumers, however it plays a larger role in the VR/AR industry than you might think. It creates parts, reference designs, as well as finished white-label products for some of the biggest companies on the planet.

Mainly noted for its work in acoustic components, the Weifang, China-based company reportedly played a role in the creation of the optical, structural and hardware design of Microsoft’s Mixed Reality headsets.

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Back in 2018, Goertek struck a strategic partnership with WaveOptics, which at the time aimed to enable mass manufacture of waveguides for ultimately cheaper AR headsets.

Goertek and Qualcomm Technologies also collaborated on the 5G-enabled XR reference design using the new Snapdragon XR2 platform. At its unveiling earlier this year, it was said Goertek was “deeply involved in the system integration and manufacturing of the XR2 reference design.”

Yivian speculates that Goertek’s recent VR/AR manufacturing push may be related to Facebook’s inevitable follow-up of Oculus Quest, although that remains to be seen. A prospective next-gen Quest would however require that sort of wide manufacturing bandwidth suggested by the Goertek’s recent announcement.

Taking into account that the Quest platform has sold over $100 million in store content, Road to VR estimates Facebook may have sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 million Quest units to date.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • DeenVR

    Ching Chang chong VR

  • From my understanding both my Oculus Rift CV1 and Valve Index headset and controllers are Goertek manufactured (Index base stations made in Illinois USA by Flex at buffalo grove).

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/93283fd700f6033eb0a63510b6933d04ae938ba6230b08bf550fdb112ba0a7d6.jpg

  • GunnyNinja

    Good, I haven’t blocked anyone in a while…

  • Andres Velasco

    Even though I like Pimax, I do not trust China in general

    • Hivemind9000

      Almost everything electronic you own will have some or all parts manufactured in China. They have very capable and high quality manufacturing infrastructure there. I think the big problem is buying a Chinese product (like Pimax) that is manufactured and supported from China (i.e. is not supported/warrantied locally). Their support is extremely sub-optimal (based on my own experience as a Pimax backer) due to (I think) language and cultural differences. While I enjoy my Pimax I’ll never buy a Chinese-supported product again.

    • nejihiashi88

      if you don’t trust them then start manufacturing at their level and their prices, but speaking against them without good alternatives will not get you anywhere.

      • Andres Velasco

        Thats is some dangerous things you are saying. TikTok is collecting data from its users for China, that poses security issues. You should grow a little first.

        Pimax so far is good, But China in general is not to be fully trusted

        • nejihiashi88

          yeah like what US is doing for the rest of the world google, facebook and every online company , i know that china is dictatorship and anti religion regime, and as a muslim i don’t like their government for what they are doing to muslims there, but we need a pragmatic solution, like either making better products at lower prices versus chinese products or at least provide an alternative, as for tiktok the US is worried that they are being beaten at their own game it is not for security issues because all people know US collect data from the rest of the world.

    • Ad

      I agree that people should care about the sausage making process and context of VR, but it’s silly to look at China as this devilish thing. Focus on specifics like that forced labor reports that are coming out of Xinjiang.

  • silvaring

    Didn’t realize goertek was involved in wave guides for AR, and the WMR headsets. Maybe this indicates a new wave of WMR is coming soon…. Which would be awesome considering the original was a perfect entry point for users getting into last Gen VR.

    • Ad

      If by WMR you mean AR devices then maybe, but I feel like these are not good recommendations at all for WMR VR. WMR’s problems were low comfort, low quality, bad tracking, and bad controllers. Something like the HP Reverb G2 is what WMR needs. Hand tracking is not really viable and smaller and lighter can come after they actually prioritize comfort.

      • silvaring

        A headset like the Huawei Glasses form factor could alleviate the neck comfort issues so its wearable while lying down. The problem is that its a front heavy design and wont work well for normal standing VR. What they need is a new design that allows for comfortable use lying down, like the current system with a detachable front. And the sweet spot on the lenses also needs to be better, not sure how well the Huawei Glasses do on that front.

        • Ad

          Why do we need a headset to weak lying down?

  • Ad

    Wait, so they’re making their own headsets or they’re making other companies’ headsets?

  • Moe Curley

    Whether you’ve heard of Goertek or not you’re about to hear a lot about them. They have a close relationship with Qualcomm in development of the XR2 platform which is about to explode in XR.