Zuckerberg plans to cut up to 30% of the metaverse project budget

According to sources, Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to significantly cut resources for the company’s metaverse business, which he once saw as the future of the company and the reason for rebranding to Meta. Executives have discussed slashing the metaverse division’s budget—including the virtual world product Meta Horizon Worlds and its Quest virtual reality department—by as much as 30%. If the cuts are this deep, layoffs could begin as early as January. The proposed metaverse reductions are part of the company’s 2026 annual budget planning, with Mark Zuckerberg asking executives to seek 10% cuts across departments. However, since Meta has not seen the expected level of industry competition, he has required even deeper cuts for the metaverse division. Most of the cuts are likely to target the virtual reality department, which accounts for the bulk of metaverse-related spending, but Horizon Worlds will also be affected. The metaverse division is part of Reality Labs, which focuses on long-term bets like VR headsets and AR glasses. Since early 2021, this division has lost more than $70 billion. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg has mentioned the metaverse less frequently in public, instead focusing on developing large AI models that power AI chatbots and other generative AI products, as well as related hardware such as Meta’s Ray-Ban smart display glasses.