Unity Software (U) stock soared on Monday, rising nearly 20% at the close after a shoutout at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (AAPL).
Unity’s gaming software will be used in Apple’s new mixed reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, Apple announced Monday.
“We know there’s a community of developers who have been building amazing 3D apps for years,” Apple’s vice president of global developer relations said during the WWDC presentation. And today, we’re excited to share that we’ve worked with Unity to bring these apps to Vision Pro. This way, popular Unity-based games and apps can get full access to Vision OS features like pass-through, high-resolution renders, and native gestures.”
Volume in Unity shares more than tripled the 20-day moving average as the stock posted its best intraday performance since Nov. 10.
Unity operates a cross-platform game engine that was first discussed at an Apple WWDC in 2005 as it relates to the Mac. The company went public in 2020 and the stock was bought up to nearly $200 per share during the 2021 stock tech surge. Cathie Wood, founder of Ark Innovation, is a shareholder. Unity is the 15th largest holding in Ark’s flagship fund, the Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) and accounts for 3.46% of the total portfolio.
“We’ve been preparing for this moment for years,” said Mike Rockwell, vice president of Apple’s technology development group, during Monday’s presentation. “Our collaboration with Unity to support their tools in depth combined with the world-class rendering of the vision operating system and powerful displays makes Apple Vision Pro an incredible platform for game developers.”
On May 10, Unity reported first-quarter earnings that beat Street’s revenue estimates while posting a bigger-than-expected loss per share. Unity posted first-quarter revenue of $500.36 million compared to Wall Street estimates of $477.67, according to Bloomberg data. Unity’s adjusted earnings-per-share loss of $0.09 was higher than the $0.01 Street expected.
Like others in the gaming industry, Unity made its first quarter earnings call to position itself as an AI winner.
“AI is going to have a profound effect on the industry,” Unity CEO John S. Riccitiello said on the company’s earnings call. “One, it’s going to lead to a growth inflection as types of games are built that weren’t – weren’t possible before. And second, we’re going to see, I think, some of the crazy spending that’s going on. produce in some high-end production has come down a bit. That’s a good thing for the growth of the gaming industry. And I guess that would be very good for Unity as we drive some of these changes in the industry.
Josh is a reporter for Yahoo Finance.
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