Silicon Valley tech firm Meta has rolled out job cuts within its Metaverse division called Reality Labs—the division that was once touted as the investment that would help Zuckerberg realize grand ambitions in the metaverse.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the cuts, but earlier reports had suggested that layoffs were incoming.
Meta has chosen to focus its efforts more on AI, a sector that is currently the focus of huge investments, funding rounds, and multi-billion-dollar infrastructure buildouts.
In October at Connect 2021, Zuckerberg had laid out an ambitious blueprint in which virtual reality-enabled tools would play a huge role in office interactions and the general day-to-day life of smartphone users.
The change in name from Facebook to Meta was part of the shift in strategy away from its widely used social media platform.
Today, Zuckerberg’s metaverse vision lies largely unexecuted, with Meta’s projects unfulfilled alongside a major portion of other companies that have ventured into this space, losing out on their investments.
Reality Labs now focuses on developing products influenced by AI, such as wearables.