Meta to Lay Off About 10% of Reality Labs Staff, NYT Reports
Meta plans to cut around 10% of Reality Labs staff focused on metaverse.
Meta is preparing to reduce its workforce in the Reality Labs division by approximately 10 percent, according to a report by The New York Times citing sources familiar with the discussions. The affected unit, which employs roughly 15,000 people, focuses on developing metaverse-related technologies, including virtual reality headsets and virtual social networks. The layoffs could be announced as early as Tuesday and are expected to impact the metaverse segment more severely than other areas within the division.
Reality Labs has been a flagship initiative under CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who invested heavily in building an immersive digital universe. Since 2020, the division has incurred losses exceeding $60 billion, reflecting the high costs and slow progress in realizing the metaverse vision. Despite these challenges, the broader Reality Labs portfolio includes successful products such as the Quest mixed-reality headsets and Ray-Ban smart glasses developed in partnership with EssilorLuxottica.
The smart glasses have achieved notable early market traction, outperforming initial attempts by competitors like Google and Apple in the wearable augmented-reality space. However, the metaverse's core ambitions—creating interconnected virtual worlds—have struggled to gain widespread adoption, prompting a strategic reassessment of resource allocation within the company.
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Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, who leads Reality Labs, has scheduled an in-person staff meeting for Wednesday and encouraged full attendance, as noted in an internal memo cited by the report. The timing and format of the meeting have fueled speculation about an imminent announcement regarding the job reductions. Meta has not yet responded to requests for official confirmation.
The planned cuts occur amid Meta's broader efforts to remain competitive in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence landscape, following a lukewarm reception to its Llama 4 model. The reductions signal a potential shift in priorities away from the resource-intensive metaverse push toward more immediately viable technologies and cost management in a high-stakes tech environment.
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