Meta’s Reality Labs posts $6.02 billion loss in fourth quarter

Meta's efforts to create the digital worlds known as the metaverse continue to be costly.

The company reported fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, saying its Reality Labs unit recorded an operating loss of $6.02 billion on $955 million in sales. Analysts were expecting Reality Labs to record an operating loss of $5.67 billion on $940.8 million in fourth-quarter revenue.

Reality Labs' losses rose 21% year over year for the quarter, while sales grew 13% during the same period. The segment now has nearly $80 billion in total operating losses since late 2020.

"I expect Reality Labs losses this year to be similar to last year, and this will likely be the peak as we start to gradually reduce our losses going forward while continuing to execute on our vision," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during an earnings call.Meta laid off more than 1,000 Reality Labs employees earlier in January in an effort to shift resources from virtual reality to artificial intelligence and wearable devices. That includes the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses developed in partnership with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica. Meta shuttered several VR efforts including internal studios, leading to fears of a VR winter, CNBC reported.

Tech chief Andrew Bosworth told media outlets last week that Meta is not killing its VR efforts, but he acknowledged the market was growing slower than executives hoped.

Last fall, Meta did not debut a new Quest VR headset, but introduced the AI-powered Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses that cost $799 and come equipped with a digital screen on one of the lenses.

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