Meta reportedly plans to put off about 10% of employees in its Metaverse division this week, with the tech big focusing assets on synthetic intelligence.
The New York Instances reported Monday, citing folks acquainted with the matter, that Meta may announce layoffs as quickly as Tuesday.
Meta’s Actuality Labs employs roughly 15,000 folks. The division focuses on digital actuality (VR) gear, equivalent to headsets, in addition to working the corporate’s Metaverse platforms, Horizon Worlds and Horizon Workrooms.
Roughly 10% of the division’s workforce, or roughly 1,500 folks, will likely be reduce.
Cointelegraph has reached out to Mehta for remark.
Meta to cut back metaverse price range
Meta has been step by step decreasing its Metaverse price range over the previous 12 months because it ramps up its give attention to synthetic intelligence (AI).
Meta’s inventory value soared in early December after studies emerged that the corporate could also be reducing its Metaverse price range by 30% and reallocating the funds to AI.
The NYT report additionally stated Meta plans to reallocate a few of the funding from Actuality Labs to extend the price range for its wearables division, which can give attention to good glasses and wrist-worn units such because the Meta Neural Band.
Boxing within the meta metaverse. sauce: meta
The corporate, previously often known as Fb, modified its identify to Meta in October 2021 as a part of a significant shift from social media to the Metaverse, VR, and augmented actuality.
Meta has misplaced greater than $70 billion at Actuality Labs for the reason that division was launched in August 2020, and the division posted an working loss value $4.4 billion in Meta’s final monetary report in Q3 2025.
On the time, Metaverse was one of many trendiest areas in cryptocurrencies and conventional expertise, however person adoption had not reached mainstream ranges.
At present, gaming-oriented Metaverse platforms equivalent to Roblox and Fortnite dominate the market, with a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of each day lively customers. Nevertheless, these platforms are outliers, and utilization metrics for different sectors are very small by comparability.
In the meantime, well-liked blockchain metaverses equivalent to The Sandbox noticed solely 776 distinctive lively wallets interact with the platform prior to now 30 days, in accordance with knowledge from DappRadar. Some declare that Horizon Worlds on Meta has fewer than 900 each day lively customers.
Meta could also be cooling its enthusiasm for the Metaverse, however CEO Mark Zuckerberg stays bullish on Metaverse’s progress potential, as soon as calling 2025 a “pivotal 12 months” for the business.
