Bad news for employees as Meta lays off 1,500 workers in major reality labs restructuring

Meta has laid off nearly 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division as it pivots away from metaverse investments and accelerates its focus on AI-powered wearables.

Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. plans to lay off another batch of workers from its Reality Labs business. The drastic cuts follow Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement last year that he will pull back investments in “the metaverse” as the business bets big on AI and wearable tech growth.

Meta Platforms to Lay Off Workers From ‘Metaverse’ Reality Labs Team

The layoffs will reportedly affect approximately 1,500 employees from Meta’s Reality Labs division, which handles most of its virtual reality and “metaverse” products. Reality Labs currently employs around 15,000 workers spanning teams focused on VR hardware, metaverse development platforms, and internal games studios. Meta plans to lay off around 10 percent of Reality Labs employees, allowing the social media giant to trim budgets across costly metaverse projects it’s deprioritized over the past year.

Meta Platforms Announces Metaverse Reality Labs Layoffs

As the social media company scales back its focus on building the metaverse, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to shift resources toward smart glasses and other AI-powered wearable technology growth. Meta has confirmed plans to launch several consumer smart glasses iterations in 2026, focusing on mobile-first AI experiences.

Luckey says Meta layoffs were ‘a good decision’

Meta’s Reality Labs teams have never successfully driven mass-market adoption of Meta’s Quest VR headsets or flagship Horizon World social metaverse experience. Zuckerberg admitted the company would need to “wind down” many of its metaverse-related projects following revenue underperformance. Speaking with investors last week, Zuckerberg added that not every project related to the metaverse will be profitable at Meta’s current scale.”

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently told employees that not all parts of its “metaverse” strategy will survive

Oculus creator Palmer Luckey congratulated Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg on his decision to downsize the company’s metaverse efforts. Luckey, who was infamously ousted by Zuckerberg after Facebook’s IPO back in 2012, took to Twitter to explain that Reality Labs layoffs will ultimately benefit VR studios no longer competing against Meta.

More Tech Layoffs to Come in 2026?

Meta Platforms is the latest big tech company to talk about layoffs this year. Last year, Amazon, Google, and Twitter cut about 10 percent of their staff. However, Meta has decided not to reduce its workforce as it moves into 2026. Even though many big tech companies are still laying off employees it does not look like Meta will do the same anytime soon.