All articles tagged with #reality labs
Meta has shuffled its metaverse leadership again, with Gabriel Aul retiring after a brief tenure and Saxs Persson taking over Horizon, as the company winds down certain metaverse initiatives and shifts billions into AI. The move follows prior exits and a broader Reality Labs downturn, and Meta emphasizes that the metaverse strategy extends beyond Horizon while continuing to invest heavily in AI.
Meta has cut about 700 roles across multiple divisions, including Reality Labs, following an earlier 10% reduction that led to the closure of three VR studios; the company says it regularly restructures to align with its goals, even as Reality Labs posted a significant annual loss.
Meta Reality Labs is reorganizing a 1,000-person team into AI-native 'pods' built around AI builders and pod/org leads to flatten the structure and boost engineering productivity and product quality; the move is stated as unrelated to recent layoffs and aligns with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s push for AI-driven, smaller teams that can tackle tasks more efficiently.
Meta is laying off hundreds of employees across its company, including Reality Labs, as it continues a major push into AI with data-center spending and other AI initiatives; Meta had about 79,000 employees as of December 2025 and has been restructuring multiple divisions after earlier rounds of layoffs in Reality Labs and VR efforts.
Meta began laying off hundreds of employees across Reality Labs and at least four other divisions as part of a broader company reorganization, with some notified immediately and others in the coming weeks. Some workers will be offered new roles or relocation. The moves align with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s emphasis on artificial intelligence, as Meta projects continued Reality Labs losses and significant AI-driven hiring in 2026, while total headcount hovered around 79,000 at end-2025.
Meta is laying off several hundred employees across multiple divisions—including Facebook, global operations, recruiting, sales, and Reality Labs—as it pivots toward artificial intelligence, with some staff offered new roles or relocations.
Meta began another wave of layoffs across Reality Labs, Facebook, recruiting, sales, and global operations as it pushes for efficiency while pouring billions into AI; some workers were affected but the company said it would try to relocate roles where possible, reflecting a broader Big Tech trend of balancing AI investment with headcount reductions.
Meta Platforms will lay off a few hundred employees across the company, with cuts concentrated in Reality Labs and across social media, recruiting operations, and a smaller number in sales, as it overhauls the business for the AI era.
Meta’s Reality Labs has posted over $80 billion in losses, but not all of that is from the metaverse—hardware like Quest headsets and Ray-Ban AI glasses account for much of the spending. Reality Labs will continue operating and burning money as Meta reframes its strategy: the metaverse isn’t dead, just evolving beyond headsets, while Zuckerberg shifts attention to AI and datacenters to build a more self-owned platform.
Meta has reversed an earlier plan to retire Horizon Worlds on VR, announcing that it will keep VR support for existing Horizon Worlds games and the Unity runtime, while not funding new VR Horizon Worlds titles and continuing its pivot toward mobile, AR, and AI amid Reality Labs losses and declining Quest headset sales.
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth announced in an Instagram AMA that Horizon Worlds will continue to support VR, but only for experiences that already work in VR; new games will be mobile-only, with the majority of Reality Labs’ focus shifting to mobile and AR investments after layoffs, marking a partial retreat from first‑party VR while keeping Horizon Worlds alive in VR.
Meta is reportedly reviving its long-discussed smartwatch project, internally named Malibu 2, with planned release this year and features centered on Meta AI and health tracking. The effort, previously paused in 2022 as Reality Labs tightened spending, follows Meta’s broader wearables push (including AR glasses and Ray-Bans) with no official launch date yet announced.
Meta Platforms beat fourth‑quarter expectations with $59.9 billion in revenue and $8.88 per‑share, driven by a 7% rise in daily active users to 3.58 billion and higher ad impressions. The company reiterated its AI‑driven strategy, detailing 2026 capex of $115–$135 billion to expand AI infrastructure, while Reality Labs losses are expected to stay near 2025 levels. For Q1, management guided revenue around $55 billion (about 30% year‑over‑year growth), signaling continued momentum under its AI‑centric approach.
Meta Platforms reported fourth-quarter 2025 revenue of $59.9B and full-year revenue of $201.0B, with Q4 net income of $22.8B and full-year net income of $60.5B. Revenue growth was driven by advertising across its Family of Apps, while Reality Labs remained loss-making. The company provided 2026 guidance—Q1 revenue of about $53.5-56.5B, total 2026 expenses of $162-169B, and capex of $115-135B—as it expands AI initiatives including Meta Superintelligence Labs, while noting regulatory headwinds in the EU and U.S. Meta also highlighted strong cash flow and a headcount near 78,865.
Meta is laying off about 1,500 Reality Labs employees (roughly 10% of the division) and shuttering three VR game studios as it pivots away from the metaverse toward AI wearables; Horizon Worlds remains but scaled back, while the company’s broader metaverse losses and ongoing AI glasses production questions frame the shift.