Meta is laying off 10% of its staff at its Reality Labs division, which is central to developing VR products and the company’s metaverse, New York Times reported.
The publication noted that Reality Labs has about 15,000 employees, and that the job cuts could affect more than 1,000 people.
Separate, CNBC reported that the company plans to close studios such as Armature Studio, Twisted Pixel, and Sanzaru, along with a technical unit called Oculus Studios Central Technology, which works on VR titles. Business Insider reports that the company’s CTO and head of Reality Labs, Andrew Bosworth, has called for the “most important” private meeting of the year on January 14.
The NYT reports that the job cuts will not affect people working in augmented reality, as the company has big ambitions to develop glasses and controllers. The report also notes that the money saved from the cut will be used for AR development.
The news is Meta, which replaces all brands from focus on the metaverse in 2021throw resources into AI development. In October, the company moved the head of metaverse Vishal Shah to overseeing AI products as vice presidentand last year, it was reorganized to adjust a Superintelligence Labs after poaching Alexandr Wang from Scale AI. The company continues to offers top packages for researchers working in other laboratories to lure them to join Meta.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.