Meta is planning to cut around 1,500 jobs from its Reality Labs division, according to a report by The New York Times. The layoffs could be announced as early as Tuesday and are expected to affect about 10 per cent of the unit’s workforce. Reality Labs currently has nearly 15,000 employees.
Reality Labs is the team behind Meta’s virtual and augmented reality products. It manages VR headsets, Ray-Ban smart glasses, and the Horizon Worlds platform. The unit grew out of Oculus, a virtual reality company that Facebook bought in 2014. For years, Reality Labs was central to Meta’s plan to build the metaverse.
The planned job cuts show a clear shift in Meta’s priorities. The company is now focusing more on artificial intelligence and large data centre projects. Meta is spending heavily to build AI infrastructure, which needs huge amounts of computing power.
Reports say internal tension has increased within Reality Labs. Meta’s Chief Technology Officer, Andrew Bosworth, has called an all-hands meeting for the division on Wednesday. Employees have been told this is the most important meeting of the year and have been asked to attend in person. The meeting is scheduled just after the layoffs are expected to be announced.
Signs of trouble at Reality Labs have been visible for some time. In December, reports said the division faced a 30 per cent budget cut. While Meta has not fully given up on the metaverse, the cuts suggested that the company was moving resources to other areas.
This shift became clearer when Meta announced a major expansion of its data centres under a new plan called Meta Compute. The company aims to build massive AI computing capacity by the end of the decade. These data centres would use as much power as several large cities.
Meta also named Dina Powell McCormick as its new president and vice chairperson. The company says this move will help manage policy, partnerships, and government relations as it pushes ahead with its AI-focused strategy.
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