Meta to Lay Off 1,500 in Reality Labs for AI Pivot

Meta Platforms Inc. is set to lay off approximately 10 percent of its employees in the Reality Labs division this week, signaling a strategic pivot away from virtual reality and metaverse projects toward artificial intelligence and related wearables. The cuts, affecting around 1,500 workers out of the division's roughly 15,000 employees, come as the company grapples with ongoing financial losses in its immersive technology efforts.

The layoffs are expected to be announced as early as Tuesday, according to people familiar with the company's plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal decisions. Andrew Bosworth, Meta's chief technology officer who oversees Reality Labs, has scheduled an in-person meeting for Wednesday and described it in a memo as the most important of the year, though he provided no further details. A spokesperson for the Menlo Park, California-based company declined to comment.

Reality Labs, established in 2020 to spearhead Meta's virtual and augmented reality initiatives, encompasses development of Quest VR headsets, Horizon Worlds social platform, and other metaverse-related hardware and software. The division...