Hajra Naz
Meta is cutting roughly 10% of staff in its Reality Labs division, the group behind the company’s virtual reality and metaverse efforts, according to The New York Times.
Reality Labs employs about 15,000 people, meaning the layoffs could affect more than 1,000 workers. For a unit that was once framed as Meta’s future, the scale of the cuts is hard to ignore.
Other changes appear to be coming alongside the layoffs. CNBC reported that Meta plans to shut down several internal studios, including Armature Studio, Twisted Pixel, and Sanzaru, as well as a technical group known as Oculus Studios Central Technology, which supported VR game development.
Around the same time, Business Insider noted that Meta CTO and Reality Labs head Andrew Bosworth called what he described as the division’s “most important” in-person meeting of the year on January 14.
Notably, the cuts are not expected to impact augmented reality teams, according to the Times. Meta still has major ambitions around AR, particularly smart glasses and controllers, and the company reportedly plans to redirect savings from the layoffs toward those efforts.
The timing is telling. Meta may have rebranded itself around the metaverse in 2021, but its priorities have shifted sharply since then. Artificial intelligence has taken center stage, both in spending and executive focus.
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Last fall, Meta moved former metaverse lead Vishal Shah into a role overseeing AI products. The company also reorganized to create Superintelligence Labs, following the high-profile hiring of Alexandr Wang, founder of Scale AI. Since then, Meta has reportedly offered aggressive compensation packages to lure top AI researchers from rival labs.
Reality Labs was once positioned as Meta’s long-term bet. Now, as AI absorbs more capital and attention, the division appears to be entering a leaner—and more uncertain—phase.
