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Brendan Iribe

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Brendan Trexler Iribe (born August 12, 1979) is an American entrepreneur and software developer best known as a co-founder and the first chief executive officer of Oculus VR, the company that produced the Oculus Rift head-mounted display.[1][2] As of October 2026 he leads Sesame, a conversational AI company he co-founded in 2023 that is developing all-day smart glasses together with a voice assistant; Sesame has said its eyewear collection will be made in Japan and is planned for 2027.[3][4][5]

Iribe joined Oculus as chief executive in August 2012, shortly after the launch of its Rift Kickstarter campaign.[6] He led Oculus through its 2014 acquisition by Facebook (now Meta) for about 2 billion dollars, then stepped down as chief executive in 2016 to lead the company's personal computer virtual reality effort before leaving Facebook in 2018.[2][7] Before Oculus he co-founded the game interface middleware company Scaleform and was chief product officer of the cloud gaming company Gaikai.[6] His 31 million dollar gift to the University of Maryland in 2014 funded the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering, a building planned for work in virtual reality, augmented reality, computer vision and robotics.[8]

Reviewed 14 October 2026. Sesame news and career facts (Scaleform, Gaikai, Oculus, Facebook departure, UMD gift, motorsport) checked against their cited sources; Wired, GameSpot and Variety refs were not reachable. About review dates.

Career timeline

Period Organization Role
2004-2011 Scaleform Co-founder and chief executive officer[6][9]
2011 Autodesk Joined the Media & Entertainment leadership team after the Scaleform acquisition[9]
Until 2012 Gaikai Chief product officer[6][1]
2012-2016 Oculus VR Co-founder and chief executive officer[1]
2016-2018 Oculus (Facebook) Head of the PC VR group[10][7]
2023-present Sesame Co-founder; leads the company[11][12]

Early life and education

Iribe was born on August 12, 1979, in Maryland.[13] He graduated from Atholton High School in Howard County, Maryland.[14] He enrolled at the University of Maryland, College Park to study computer science, attending during the 1997 and 1998 academic terms, and left after two semesters to work as a freelance programmer.[13][1] Early in his career he worked as a programmer, including on the user interface for the strategy video game Civilization IV; the University of Maryland describes him as helping the Firaxis team build that game's interface.[13][8]

Scaleform

In 2004 Iribe co-founded Scaleform with Michael Antonov, a company that developed user interface middleware for video games.[13][6] Iribe was its chief executive and Antonov its chief technology officer. The company's main product, Scaleform GFx, was used for menus, in-game heads-up displays, animated textures and minigames; Game Developer reported in 2011 that it was used in around 800 games, and the 2012 Oculus announcement put the figure at over 1,000.[9][6] Autodesk announced its intent to acquire Scaleform in February 2011 and completed the purchase, valued at 36 million dollars, in March 2011. Iribe, Antonov and chief operating officer Marc Bennett joined Autodesk's Media & Entertainment leadership team.[9][8]

Gaikai

Before Oculus, Iribe was chief product officer of Gaikai, a cloud gaming company.[6][1] He left Gaikai in 2012 to join Oculus.[13] Sony Computer Entertainment acquired Gaikai for 380 million dollars in July 2012.[8]

Oculus VR

Oculus VR was founded in 2012 to commercialize the head-mounted display designs of Palmer Luckey.[15] In August 2012, Iribe joined as chief executive officer, with Luckey continuing as the designer of the hardware and the public face of the company.[15] An Oculus announcement dated August 14, 2012 named Iribe as chief executive, Michael Antonov as chief software architect responsible for the Oculus SDK, and Jack McCauley as vice president of engineering.[6] Iribe is generally described as one of the co-founders of Oculus, alongside Luckey, Michael Antonov, Nate Mitchell, Andrew Reisse, and Jack McCauley.[16]

Oculus had launched a Kickstarter campaign for a developer kit version of the Oculus Rift on August 1, 2012. It raised over 2.4 million dollars, well above its 250,000 dollar goal, which it passed within 24 hours.[17] As chief executive, Iribe led the company through this growth period, including outside venture funding and the shipment of early development kits to backers and developers.[17] Engadget lists a first investment round of 16 million dollars in June 2013 and a further 75 million dollars in December 2013.[17]

At Oculus Connect 2014 in September 2014, Iribe unveiled the Crescent Bay prototype in his keynote; Road to VR reported that Oculus presented it as approaching what the company called the "holy grail of virtual reality, presence."[18] On June 11, 2015, Iribe was among the speakers when Oculus revealed the consumer version of the Rift, which had two OLED displays, built-in removable headphones and an external desk sensor, and was to ship with a wireless Xbox One controller and wireless PC receiver.[19] PCWorld reported that Iribe described the combined 2160x1200 resolution at 90 Hz as "maybe not the resolution you may one day want" while calling it a good start.[20] In March 2016 Iribe confirmed that the first consumer Rift units had shipped, with deliveries set to begin on March 28, 2016.[21]

Facebook acquisition

On March 25, 2014, Facebook announced an agreement to acquire Oculus VR for a deal valued at approximately 2 billion dollars. The terms included 400 million dollars in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook common stock valued at about 1.6 billion dollars, plus an additional earn-out of up to 300 million dollars in cash and stock tied to performance milestones.[2] In Facebook's announcement, Iribe said: "We are excited to work with Mark and the Facebook team to deliver the very best virtual reality platform in the world."[2] The transaction closed in July 2014.[22] Iribe continued as chief executive of Oculus after it became part of Facebook.[23] Engadget reported at the time of the sale that he said Facebook intended to let Oculus operate independently.[17]

Transition to PC VR

On December 13, 2016, Iribe stepped down as chief executive of Oculus and moved into a role leading the company's personal computer virtual reality group, which focused on the Rift, research, and computer vision.[23][10] Iribe said the move reflected a desire to return to hands-on product work, writing that he had "really missed the deep, day-to-day involvement in building a brand new product."[23] As part of the reorganization, Oculus was split into separate personal computer and mobile virtual reality teams, with Jon Thomason leading mobile VR, and Hugo Barra later joined Facebook in January 2017 as vice president of virtual reality overseeing Oculus.[10][24]

Departure from Facebook

On October 22, 2018, Iribe announced that he was leaving Facebook after six years with Oculus.[7][25][26] In a public statement he wrote that it was time to "recharge, reflect and be creative," and that it would be "the first real break I've taken in over 20 years."[7][26] The same post said that "Every part of VR and AR needs to improve, especially the hardware and core technology."[26] Citing a source close to the matter, TechCrunch reported that his departure followed the cancellation of a next-generation "Rift 2" personal computer headset whose development he had been leading, and that he and Facebook's leadership had "fundamentally different views on the future of Oculus."[7] Facebook did not deny the report; it said it was continuing to invest in PC, and a spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company was "planning for a future version of Rift."[7] His exit was part of a broader series of departures by founders of companies Facebook had acquired.[25]

Sesame

Iribe co-founded Sesame, a conversational AI and smart glasses company, in 2023.[3][27] Road to VR lists its founders as Iribe, former Oculus hardware architect Ryan Brown and Ankit Kumar, the former chief technology officer of the AR startup Ubiquity6.[11][27] The company describes its work as personal agents that hold natural conversations, plus devices built around them, with offices in San Francisco, Bellevue and New York; its leadership page lists Iribe, Kumar, Brown, Angela Gayles and Nate Mitchell.[28]

Sesame came out of stealth in February 2025.[12] On February 27, 2025, it published a research post by Iribe, Kumar and the Sesame team, "Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice," with a public demo; an accompanying technical post introduced its Conversational Speech Model (CSM).[29] The demo voices were named "Maya" and "Miles"; TechCrunch, citing a Sequoia post, reported that more than a million people used them in the first few weeks.[12] The same day, Anjney Midha of Andreessen Horowitz wrote that the firm had led Sesame's Series A, describing an audio-first approach that pairs AI speech with hardware without a visual display.[30] Road to VR reported that the Series A had closed in November 2023 at 47.5 million dollars, with backers including Andreessen Horowitz, Spark Capital and Matrix Partners.[3]

In June 2025 Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell announced that he was joining Sesame as chief product officer, saying he was getting "the band back together" with many of the original Oculus team.[3][27] On October 21, 2025, Sesame announced a 250 million dollar Series B, with Sequoia Capital and Spark Capital among the lead investors, and opened an early beta of its iOS app to selected testers. TechCrunch reported that former Oculus chief operating officer Hans Hartmann was the company's chief operating officer, and that Sesame said its glasses would offer "high-quality audio" and an AI companion that would "observe the world alongside you."[12][11]

Sesame released an iOS preview of its agents on the App Store in 39 countries on May 27, 2026, adding the characters Simone and Charlie alongside Maya and Miles and saying an Android preview was on its way; the post called it a step on the road to "intelligent eyewear (coming 2027)."[31] On October 5, 2026, the company announced that its eyewear collection would be made in Japan and would be available in 2027, a timing the company had already given for its eyewear in May 2026.[5][4] A post by Mitchell the next day described the glasses and the assistant as "one product," said the company was "designing our assistants to be the operating system for the Sesame glasses," and said a preview was available in the Sesame app for iOS and Android.[32] As of mid-October 2026 Sesame had not published a price, specifications or an exact release date for the glasses.[32][4]

Motorsport

Outside technology, Iribe has raced sports cars. Inception Racing, a team operated by Optimum Motorsport, entered a McLaren 720S GT3 in the GTD class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for seven rounds in 2022; in December 2022 it confirmed a full-season 2023 program spearheaded by Iribe, who was to share the car with Frederik Schandorff.[33]

University of Maryland gift

In September 2014, the University of Maryland announced a 31 million dollar gift from Iribe, an amount the university described at the time as the largest in its history.[8][34] Of the total, 30 million dollars went toward the construction of a new computer science building and 1 million dollars established the Brendan Iribe Scholarship in Computer Science.[8] Announced as the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Innovation and later named the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering, the building was designed for work in fields including virtual reality, augmented reality, computer vision, and robotics.[8][1] The same announcement included additional gifts from Oculus co-founder Michael Antonov (4 million dollars) and from Iribe's mother, Elizabeth Iribe (3 million dollars for two endowed chairs in computer science).[8] The university celebrated the opening of the six-floor building, which houses the Department of Computer Science and the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, on April 27, 2019.[35]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Recognizing Our Donors: Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering". University of Maryland. https://iribe.umd.edu/recognition. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Facebook to Acquire Oculus". Meta (about.fb.com). 2014-03-25. https://about.fb.com/news/2014/03/facebook-to-acquire-oculus/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Hayden, Scott (2025-06-27). "Former Oculus Execs Are Jumping Back into Wearables with Sesame Smart Glasses". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/ex-oculus-execs-sesame-smart-glasses-nate-mitchell/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Oculus創業者のAI企業Sesameが、日本製スマートグラスを2027年に投入へ". Mogura VR News. 2026-10-06. https://www.moguravr.com/sesame-made-in-japan-2027/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Made in Japan". Sesame. 2026-10-05. https://www.sesame.com/journal/made-in-japan. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Cahill, Sean (2012-08-21). "Former Gaikai Officer Brendan Iribe tabbed as Oculus CEO". Gaming Nexus. https://gamingnexus.com/News/27720/Former-Gaikai-Officer-Brendan-Iribe-tabbed-as-Oculus-CEO. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Matney, Lucas (2018-10-22). "Oculus co-founder is leaving Facebook after cancellation of 'Rift 2' headset". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/22/oculus-co-founder-is-leaving-facebook-after-cancellation-of-rift-2-headset/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 "College Receives $38M for New Computer Science Building, Scholarships, Endowed Professorships". University of Maryland, College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences. 2014-09-12. https://cmns.umd.edu/news-events/news/college-receives-38m-new-computer-science-building-scholarships-endowed. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Graft, Kris (2011-03-01). "Autodesk Completes $36M Scaleform Acquisition". Game Developer. https://gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/autodesk-completes-36m-scaleform-acquisition. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Matney, Lucas (2016-12-13). "Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe steps down, will now lead PC-based VR division within company". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/13/oculus-ceo-brendan-iribe-steps-down-will-now-lead-pc-based-vr-division-within-company/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Hayden, Scott (2025-10-24). "Former Oculus Execs' AI Smart Glasses Startup 'Sesame' Raises $250M Series B Funding". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/former-oculus-ai-smart-glasses-startup-sesame-raises-250m/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Perez, Sarah (2025-10-21). "Sesame, the conversational AI startup from Oculus founders, raises $250M and launches beta". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/21/sesame-the-conversational-ai-startup-from-oculus-founders-raises-250m-and-launches-beta/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 "Brendan Iribe". Wikipedia. 2026-06-01. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Iribe. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  14. ↑ Belt, Deb (2014-09-12). "Oculus CEO's $31M Gift to UMD Is Largest in University History". Patch. https://patch.com/maryland/northpotomac/oculus-ceos-31m-gift-umd-largest-university-history. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Rubin, Peter (2014-07-03). "The inside story of the Oculus Rift, VR's singularity moment". WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/inside-oculus/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  16. ↑ Tran, Edmond (2019-05-10). "All Six Oculus Founders Have Now Left". GameSpot. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/all-six-oculus-founders-have-now-left/1100-6469097/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Mitchell, Richard (2014-03-28). "Oculus Rift: From $2.4 million Kickstarter to $2 billion sale". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2014-03-28-oculus-rift-from-2-4-million-kickstarter-to-2-billion-sale.html. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  18. ↑ James, Paul (2014-09-20). "First Hands-on: Oculus Rift Crescent Bay is Incredible". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/hands-on-oculus-rift-crescent-bay-prototype/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  19. ↑ Lee, Nicole (2015-06-11). "Oculus reveals its consumer Rift VR headset". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2015-06-11-oculus-reveals-its-consumer-rift-headset.html. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  20. ↑ Dingman, Hayden (2015-06-11). "Oculus announces new Touch hand-tracker and details first games for the consumer-edition Rift". PCWorld. https://www.pcworld.com/article/427987/oculus-announces-new-touch-hand-tracker-and-details-first-games-for-the-consumer-edition-rift.html. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  21. ↑ Lang, Ben (2016-03-24). "The First Oculus Rift Has Shipped, Deliveries Begin Monday". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/first-oculus-rift-has-shipped-delivery-monday-march-28/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  22. ↑ Constine, Josh (2014-07-21). "Facebook's $2 Billion Acquisition Of Oculus Closes, Now Official". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2014/07/21/facebooks-acquisition-of-oculus-closes-now-official/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Ingraham, Nathan (2016-12-13). "Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe steps down, will lead PC VR group". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2016-12-13-oculus-ceo-brendan-iribe-steps-down.html. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  24. ↑ Etherington, Darrell (2017-01-25). "Hugo Barra joins Facebook to lead its VR efforts including Oculus". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/25/hugo-barra-joins-facebook-to-lead-its-vr-efforts-including-oculus/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Roettgers, Janko (2018-10-22). "Oculus Co-Founder Brendan Iribe Is Leaving Facebook". Variety. https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/oculus-co-founder-brendan-iribe-is-leaving-facebook-1202988298/. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 Chapple, Craig (2018-10-22). "Former Oculus CEO and co-founder Brendan Iribe follows Palmer Luckey out the door". PocketGamer.biz. https://pocketgamer.biz/job-news/69321/former-oculus-ceo-and-co-founder-brendan-iribe-leaves/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 Koch, Marie-Claire (2025-06-27). "Oculus founders reunited: New glasses project revolves around AI instead of VR". heise online. https://heise.de/-10462469. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  28. ↑ "Team". Sesame. https://www.sesame.com/team. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  29. ↑ Brendan Iribe, Ankit Kumar, the Sesame team (2025-02-27). "Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice". Sesame. https://www.sesame.com/research/crossing_the_uncanny_valley_of_voice. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  30. ↑ Midha, Anjney (2025-02-27). "Investing in Sesame AI". Andreessen Horowitz. https://a16z.com/announcement/investing-in-sesame-ai/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  31. ↑ Jiang, Raven (2026-05-27). "Voice your curiosity". Sesame. https://www.sesame.com/journal/voice-your-curiosity. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Mitchell, Nate (2026-10-06). "A new form of eyewear". Sesame. https://www.sesame.com/journal/a-new-form-of-eyewear. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  33. ↑ Dagys, John (2022-12-09). "Inception Confirms Full-Season GTD Effort With McLaren". Sportscar365. https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/inception-confirms-full-season-gtd-effort/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  34. ↑ "Brendan Iribe, Oculus CEO, Gives $31M for New University of Maryland Computer Science Building". PR Newswire. 2014-09-12. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/brendan-iribe-oculus-ceo-gives-31m-for-new-university-of-maryland-computer-science-building-274882781.html. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  35. ↑ "UMD to Celebrate the Opening of the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering". University of Maryland. 2019-04-23. https://umdrightnow.umd.edu/news-releases/umd-celebrate-opening-brendan-iribe-center-computer-science-and-engineering.md. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
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