Meta to cut 10% of Reality Labs staff

Meta is reportedly laying off 10% of the staff in its Reality Labs division, which is the core business unit responsible for developing the company’s virtual reality and metaverse products. According to a report from The New York Times, the job cuts could impact over 1,000 people out of the division’s total headcount of roughly 15,000 employees. The reduction marks a notable pullback for the division, which has been at the center of Meta’s hardware strategy.

In addition to the staff layoffs, Meta plans to shut down several of its gaming studios and technical units. CNBC reported that the company plans to shut down studios including:

• Armature Studio
• Twisted Pixel
• Sanzaru
• Oculus Studios Central Technology, a technical unit focused on VR titles

Following these decisions, Business Insider reported that Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s CTO and the head of Reality Labs, called for an in-person meeting on January 14. Bosworth reportedly characterized the gathering as the “most important” in-person meeting of the year.

The job cuts will reportedly not impact employees working on augmented reality. The New York Times reported that the job cuts will not impact staff working on augmented reality, as the company maintains its ambitions to develop glasses and controllers.

The restructuring comes as Meta, which changed its entire brand to focus on the metaverse in 2021, is pouring resources into AI development. The company has steadily shifted executive talent and research assets toward this goal. In October, Meta moved its metaverse head, Vishal Shah, to oversee AI products as a vice president. Last year, the company also reorganized to set up its Superintelligence Labs, which serves as Meta’s internal AI research unit, after poaching researcher Alexandr Wang from Scale AI.

Why it matters

Meta is shifting resources away from its metaverse-focused Reality Labs division to prioritize AI development, including the reorganization of its Superintelligence Labs.