Jan 12 (Reuters) – Meta plans to cut around 10% of the employees in its Reality Labs division who work on products including the metaverse, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing three people with knowledge of the discussions.
The cuts to Reality Labs, which has roughly 15,000 employees, could be announced as soon as Tuesday and are set to disproportionately affect those in the metaverse unit who work on virtual reality headsets and virtual social networks, the report said.
The metaverse had been a massive project spearheaded by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who prioritized and spent heavily on the venture, only for the business to burn more than $60 billion since 2020.
Apart from the metaverse, the Reality Labs segment also produces Meta’s Quest mixed-reality headsets, smart glasses made with EssilorLuxottica’s Ray-Ban and augmented-reality glasses.
While the company has struggled to sell its vision of an immersive digital universe of interconnected worlds, it has seen early success with the smart glasses as competitors such as Google and Apple failed to tap the market with initial attempts.
Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, who oversees Reality Labs, has called a meeting on Wednesday and has urged staff to attend in person, the NYT reported, citing a memo.
Meta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The report comes as the Facebook-parent scrambles to stay relevant in Silicon Valley’s artificial intelligence race after its Llama 4 model met with a poor reception.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
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