Meta to Cut About 10% of Reality Labs as It Shifts Investment to AI

Overview

• Meta is planning about a 10% reduction inside Reality Labs, with cuts focused on VR headset and social VR teams at a unit of roughly 15,000 employees out of 78,000 companywide.
• The reductions could be announced this week and may ultimately exceed 10%, and CTO Andrew Bosworth has called an in-person staff meeting for Jan. 14, according to internal memos and people familiar.
• The move aligns with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s push to trim 2026 budgets while shifting resources to next-generation AI research, including increased funding for the TBD Lab.
• Meta says it is redirecting part of metaverse spending to AI-enabled glasses rather than pursuing broader changes, and the augmented-reality wearables group is expected to be largely spared, according to reports.
• In parallel, Meta hired Dina Powell McCormick for a senior role tied to data-center finance and unveiled the Meta Compute plan to build large AI data centers.