Meta has announced it is reducing its workforce.

In January 2025, Meta said it would lay off 3,600 employees, nearly 5% of its workforce, who were classified as “low performers,” as AFROTECH™ previously reported. This announcement came as the company was preparing for its most “intense year,” according to the internal memo that CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted, sharing news of the workforce reduction.

“Meta is working on building some of the most important technologies of the world,” Zuckerberg said at the time, according to CNBC. “AI, glasses as the next computing platform and the future of social media.”

Layoffs In Reality Labs Division

In 2026, Meta announced another round of layoffs, according to The New York Times. Its Reality Labs division — which develops augmented and virtual reality products, including Meta’s metaverse virtual-reality world and Meta’s Ray-Ban sunglasses — will primarily be affected.

The tech company plans to lay off up 10% of employees, per the outlet. Reality Labs employs roughly 15,000 workers. According to Bloomberg, the cuts were confirmed in an internal memo from Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, who also oversees Reality Labs.

Layoffs Explained

The New York Times reports that Zuckerberg informed top executives in 2025 that they would need to cut their budgets for 2026.

In Bosworth’s recent memo, he said the company is actively scaling back its virtual reality investments to ensure the business is “more sustainable,” reports Fast Company. Instead, Meta will shift its focus to wearables rather than Metaverse products.

A spokesperson at Meta said the company intends to “reinvest the savings [from Reality Labs cuts] to support the growth of wearables this year,” according to Fast Company.

In addition to focusing on wearables, Meta has ramped up its budget for AI projects, including TBD Lab, which focuses on superintelligence, according to the New York Times. TBD Labs aims to compete with OpenAI and Google.