Meta Reportedly Unhappy With How Much Money Its VR Division Burns

Meta is reportedly sticking to its plans to release more VR headsets and AR glasses in just a few short years, but things are getting a little tense for those developing the next big metaverse thingamajigs. A new report claims Meta told its VR/AR teams to cut spending by a fifth. The company still expects developers to pump out a new Meta Quest 4 headset, a Quest Pro sequel, and new AR glasses that nix the Ray Bans branding in the next three years. 

Meta has been shifting its focus over to AI. The company is gearing up to release its Llama 400B semi-open source AI model by the end of this month if the rumors can be believed. The Mark Zuckerberg-led tech giant hasn’t given up on its VR/AR-centric Reality Labs division, but according to a report from The Information, staff are being told to tighten their belts. The division has routinely spent billions of dollars on many projects, but anonymous sources told The Information the team will need to axe costs by around 20%. That’s significant, considering that the division posted $3.85 billion in losses this past quarter. The company just got done with some massive layoffs last year that axed 10,000 staff, though we still don’t know how many Reality Labs positions got cut.

According to the report, the company’s chief financial officer, Susan Li, told staff the division has lost $55 billion since 2019. That doesn’t mean Meta’s giving up on its metaverse dreams, but we don’t know where these cuts might land. Gizmodo contacted Meta for comment, but we did not immediately hear back.

As for now, there are still products in the pipeline, some of which we’ll see hit shelves as soon as next year. The first one is a pair of AR glasses, and no, they won’t have any Ray Bans Meta Smart Glasses branding to go with it. The information sources claim that the next pair of glasses will be relatively heavy for a pair of sunglasses, which will be around 70 grams and have some thick frames. The glasses themselves use an LCD screen in the right lens with your regular projection technology like we’ve seen with XReal Air 2 Ultras and similar products. 

Essilor Luxottica, the conglomerate behind Ray Bans, apparently didn’t like the idea of such heavy glasses bearing their branding. We’re happy to see that logo fall off Meta’s AR glasses. Instead, we’re more interested in how well Meta can balance wearability needs versus battery life, power, and visuals. Meta’s been focusing on bringing its AI imaging capabilities to the AR glasses, so we can only expect more of that in the next go-around. 

So that’s it for 2025, but in 2026 we may see the sequel to the current $500 Meta Quest 3. We’ve enjoyed our time with Meta’s most-recent headset, and it’s gotten better since adding better Xbox and Steam integration, alongside improvement for the UI and hand tracking. Meta’s reportedly two different versions of the Quest 4, one lower and another higher-end version. 

Finally, Meta has tentatively slated a new version of the Quest Pro slated for 2027. That device cost $1,500 when it first hit the scene, but the device proved unpopular with consumers who were more used to spending a few hundred for their VR headsets rather than thousands.

The new Quest Pro is supposed to compete against the Apple Vision Pro. Apple’s big headset has also struggled to make an impression after its initial February launch, not the least due to its $3,500 price tag. There’s reportedly a weaker, cheaper Vision device in the works, but it may lack some of the passthrough capabilities of the current, high-end device. Currently, there’s just too wide a gulf between how well these devices perform and their size/price. Now, the VR race isn’t just between Meta and Apple, but now includes each company’s willingness to keep throwing money at the waning metaverse market.

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