Meta is Cutting 10% of its Reality Labs Workforce as it Shifts its Focus to Mobile and Wearables

Meta is laying off 10% of employees working at its Reality Labs group as the company is scaling back its investments in the metaverse. According to Bloomberg, which saw an internal memo from Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth detailing the layoffs, this represents more than 1,000 job cuts.

“We said last month that we were shifting some of our investment from metaverse toward wearables,” a company spokesperson told Bloomberg. “This is part of that effort, and we plan to reinvest the savings to support the growth of wearables this year.”

In recent years, Meta invested billions of dollars in what it saw as the next big platform after the smartphone. While Meta did see some success with its Quest VR headsets and AI glasses, Bloomberg reports that the Reality Labs division generated more than $70 billion in losses since 2021. That’s why Meta’s CTO said in his internal memo seen by the publication that the company needed to make the business “more sustainable.”

While Meta will continue to invest in the metaverse, the company is now focusing on expanding its existing ‘Horizon’ VR experiences to mobile devices. In his memo to employees, Bosworth also explained that “With the larger potential user base and the fastest growth rate today, we are shifting teams and resources almost exclusively to mobile to continue to accelerate adoption there.”

As for wearable devices, the company recently launched in the US new Ray-Ban Display glasses with a display on the right lens and a neural band that translates signals created by muscle activity into various commands. However, the company said during CES last week that due to “unprecedented demand and limited inventory,” international expansion to the UK, France, Italy, and Canada will have to wait.