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Meta is laying off 10% of staff in its Reality Labs division, which is core to developing the company’s VR and metaverse products, the New York Times reported.
The publication noted that Reality Labs had roughly 15,000 employees, and the job cuts could impact over 1,000 people.
Separately, CNBC reported that the company plans to shut down studios such as Armature Studio, Twisted Pixel, and Sanzaru, along with a technical unit called Oculus Studios Central Technology, which was working on VR titles. Business Insider reported that the company’s CTO and head of Reality Labs, Andrew Bosworth, called for the “most important” in-person meeting of the year on January 14.
The NYT reported that the job cuts would not impact folks working on augmented reality, as the company has big ambitions to develop glasses and controllers. The report also noted that the money saved from these cuts will be used for AR development.
The news comes as Meta, which changed its entire brand from to focus on the metaverse in 2021, is pouring its resources into AI development. In October, the company moved metaverse head Vishal Shah to oversee AI products as a vice president, and last year, reorganized to set up its Superintelligence Labs after poaching Alexandr Wang from Scale AI. The company went on to offer top packages to researchers working at other labs to lure them to join Meta.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
