Yes, almost all of the technology in Vive is originally Valve research. The lighthouses, headset prototype, and controllers were all being demoed (in 3D printed

Yes, almost all of the technology in Vive is originally Valve research. The lighthouses, headset prototype, and controllers were all being demoed (in 3D printed/hacked hardware) at their Bellevue offices in ~2015, or maybe earlier, I forget. HTC partnered with Valve as a manufacturing partner then. I don't know of any meaningful VR research that has happened at HTC independently.