“Metaverse bosses” hired at big companies around the world in recent months spend their days crafting an overall strategy and evangelizing the underlying technology, even as the metaverse itself—that is, shared, interconnected virtual worlds— it remains a fragmented dream.

Why it matters: Proponents say the metaverse, essentially the Internet made immersive, thanks in part to virtual and augmented reality, is the next big thing in connectivity and commerce.

• Many Fortune 500 companies are at least curious about the metaverse, for fear of missing out on what could be the next big technological opportunity.

Background: Some companies launched or expanded their metaverse efforts after Facebook rebranded itself as Meta late last year and announced a…