After losing more than $70 billion, Mark Zuckerberg seems to have finally admitted that his biggest bet is 'not working'

6 months ago by monica_b1998 to c/meta

Meta is reportedly slashing its Metaverse budget by up to 30% for 2026, reflecting significant losses and a lack of consumer interest. This strategic shift prioritizes investment in artificial intelligence and smart glasses, with potential layoffs looming for the Reality Labs division. The company aims to reallocate resources towards its AI ambitions.

T00l_shed 23 points 6 months ago

Can you imagine pissing away 70 billion and not having it affect your livelihood is any way at all.. fucking bonkers

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UnderpantsWeevil 3 points 6 months ago

I mean, its a company with a $1.63T market cap that claims to generate $165B/year. The rebrand to Metaverse was around five years ago, so we're talking about $640B in revenue earned during that time. And this is a company whose peak employee count was 86,482 in 2022, as they were full steam ahead with Metaverse. They quite literally had money to burn.

That's not even to say it didn't affect their livelihoods. Since 2022, Facebook has been laying off staff and cutting dividends in the face of the Metaverse flop. Facebook is no longer a "growing" company. Its enormous but stagnant as Zuck's board and senior managers cast around for the next idea.

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T00l_shed 4 points 6 months ago

Oh it certainly affected the livelihoods of the workers, but I was referring to zuck

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UnderpantsWeevil 1 point 6 months ago

There's an old interview with Bill Gates, back when Microsoft had dipped from a $60B valuation to a $40B valuation in the 90s. The interviewer was eating burgers with Gates and asked "How much does it really matter when you've still got so much liquidity?"

All Gates can do is shake his head, wave his sandwich, and say "$20B buys a lot of hamburgers".

I think, if you could look in an alternate universe where Zuckerberg's Metaverse hadn't tanked (or he'd just sunk his money into something more reliable - like buying out Twitter or TikTok and integrating it into Facebook - or gone the direction of Elon / Bezos and started his own easily weaponize-able Space Program) you'd notice a number of major differences.

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reddig33 7 points 6 months ago

Dude dumb lucked out one time. Everything else he’s “invented” has either flopped, or been competition he bought out.

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apfelwoiSchoppen 3 points 6 months ago

Just wait until they disclose how much they've lost on AI when the bubble pops.

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DarrinBrunner 1 point 6 months ago

All the tech bros looking at GabeN and thinking they're doing it wrong. GabeN has ~400 employees, in a private company, and he just closed on his $100+ million-dollar yacht, and no one really hates him*. I can only imagine his stress and headaches are far less than any of the others.

*Yes, you could hate him just because he's a billionaire, and I agree you'd be justified in that, but from all accounts he treats the people around him very well and isn't a power-hungry asshole.

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