2026-01-12T21:27:02.506Z
Meta plans layoffs in Reality Labs, affecting the teams behind VR headsets and Horizon Worlds.
The restructuring follows major financial losses and a strategic shift toward AI.
Reality Labs faces uncertainty as Meta leadership emphasizes 2025 as a decisive year for the unit.
Meta is preparing layoffs in its Reality Labs division, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke with Business Insider.
The teams working on the company’s virtual reality headsets and Horizon Worlds, its VR-based social network, will be disproportionately affected, two employees said.
Roughly 10% to 15% of Reality Labs’ 15,000 employees are expected to be laid off, with the cuts set to be announced this week, The New York Times reported.
Meta declined to comment.
The move comes as Meta CTO and Reality Labs chief Andrew Bosworth has called a key division-wide meeting for Wednesday, describing it as the “most important” of the year and urging employees to show up in person, Business Insider previously reported.
Reality Labs has been a costly bet for Meta, racking up more than $70 billion in losses since 2020. It has faced repeated rounds of cuts as Meta shifts its attention — and spending — toward AI.
In a memo obtained by Business Insider last year, Bosworth called 2025 “the most critical” year of his tenure and warned the outcome would determine whether Reality Labs is remembered as visionary work or “a legendary misadventure.”
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