In a significant strategic reversal, Meta Platforms Inc. is dramatically scaling back its investment in the metaverse. The company is redirecting approximately 30% of its budget for this initiative toward artificial intelligence and its highly profitable core advertising operations. This move by CEO Mark Zuckerberg represents a decisive pullback from what has been a costly, multi-year experiment.
Core Advertising Business Demonstrates Robust Health
The rationale for this strategic shift becomes clear when examining the performance of Meta’s foundational businesses. The Family of Apps segment—encompassing Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger—remains a financial powerhouse. For the first nine months of 2025, this division generated $139.8 billion in revenue, delivering an operating profit of $71.7 billion.
Excluding the substantial losses from its Reality Labs unit, the operating margin for Meta’s advertising business stands at an impressive 51.3%. Even when consolidated with the metaverse division’s results, the company maintains a robust overall operating margin of 43.3%, a level of profitability few global technology firms can match.
Reality Labs: Billions in Cumulative Losses
The financial burden of the metaverse venture is staggering. Meta’s Reality Labs division has accumulated losses totaling $71 billion since 2021. The unit’s performance has consistently deteriorated year-over-year, with annual losses deepening:
- 2021: $10.19 billion loss
- 2022: $13.72 billion loss
- 2023: $16.12 billion loss
- 2024: $17.73 billion loss
For the initial three quarters of 2025 alone, the division reported a loss of $13.27 billion against meager revenue of just $1.3 billion. As a consequence of the budget reductions, projects including the Horizon Worlds metaverse platform and the Quest virtual reality hardware line will be affected. Initial layoffs within these teams are anticipated for January 2026.
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EU Agreement Provides Regulatory Clarity
Concurrently, Meta has reached an agreement with the European Commission concerning its advertising practices. Starting in January 2026, users in Europe will be given a choice regarding how their personal data is utilized for targeted advertising. This settlement resolves a dispute linked to a potential €200 million penalty under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), providing the company with clearer operational guidelines in a key market.
Artificial Intelligence Emerges as Primary Investment Focus
The reallocation of resources underscores Meta’s conviction that artificial intelligence offers more immediate promise than virtual reality. Freed-up capital is being channeled into several AI-focused areas: the construction of proprietary data centers, advancement of the Llama large language model, enhancement of the Meta AI assistant, and the algorithmic optimization of content and advertising delivery.
Despite this strategic pivot, Meta’s overall capital expenditure remains substantial. The company has guided for 2025 expenses in the range of $70 to $72 billion, with management signaling even higher investment levels for the 2026 fiscal year.
Investors will gain further insight into the permanence of this strategic overhaul and the specific restructuring plans for Reality Labs when Meta releases its next quarterly earnings report on January 28, 2026.
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