Disputes, Employee Misconduct Rattle Centerview’s Silicon Valley DreamsRead more

A mock-up of how MicroVision's Lidar sensor for autonomous vehicles works. Picture by MicroVision.

An AR Stock Gets Caught Up in the Meme Cycle

By  |  April 28, 2021 11:02 AM PDT
Photo: A mock-up of how MicroVision's Lidar sensor for autonomous vehicles works. Picture by MicroVision.

Earlier this year when the GameStop stock surge seemingly became all that anyone was talking about, I wondered whether an AR or VR company’s stock would one day end up in the crosshairs of Reddit’s trigger-happy traders. As it turned out, it was already happening, with a small AR-related company called MicroVision.

The company provides components for Microsoft’s HoloLens, among other things, something which likely helped extricate the stock from Wall Street’s doghouse last year. It enjoyed a slow but steady rise from around a quarter a share to above $6 by year’s end. In recent weeks, enthusiasm on Reddit for the stock has lifted it to a high of $27 on Monday, although it has come down a bit since then. As was the case with GameStop, it's hard to square this investor enthusiasm with the reality of Microvision’s business.

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