Meta Layoffs: Mark Zuckerberg to lay off many from Metaverse’s semicon unit

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is set to implement a significant workforce reduction within its Reality Labs division’s specialized silicon unit focused on metaverse development. According to reliable sources, this workforce reduction is scheduled for Wednesday.

The announcement of these impending layoffs was conveyed to employees through an internal communication on Meta’s Workplace forum on Tuesday. The affected employees will receive official notifications about their employment status early on Wednesday morning, as indicated by one of our sources.

If these layoffs prove to be substantial in scale, they could potentially hinder the progress of Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitious project to create augmented and virtual reality products that provide access to an array of immersive virtual worlds, collectively referred to as the “metaverse.” This includes the development of augmented reality (AR) glasses, which Zuckerberg envisions as a technology that will revolutionize our interaction with digital devices.

The impacted unit, known as FAST, currently comprises approximately 600 employees and has been responsible for designing custom chips to enhance the performance and efficiency of Meta’s devices. These chips are intended to set Meta’s offerings apart in the emerging augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) market. Nevertheless, Meta has encountered difficulties in producing competitive chips in-house and has turned to Qualcomm, a chipmaker, to produce chips for its existing products.

The restructuring of the FAST unit has been anticipated since the spring, coinciding with the appointment of a new executive to lead the division.

In a similar vein, another chip development unit within Meta’s infrastructure division, primarily focusing on artificial intelligence applications, has faced its own set of challenges. The executive overseeing this division recently announced her departure, but Meta has appointed a replacement to carry on with the ongoing efforts.

Meta is presently known for its mixed reality headsets, including the Quest line, and smart glasses created in collaboration with eyeglass manufacturer Ray-Ban’s parent company, EssilorLuxottica. These smart glasses have the capability to stream video content and engage with wearers through an AI-powered virtual assistant.

At the recent annual Connect conference, Meta unveiled new iterations of its smart glasses and the consumer-oriented Quest headset, referred to as Quest 3. The company is also actively working on developing more advanced AR glasses with a less cumbersome appearance, resembling conventional eyeglasses. Additionally, they are exploring the creation of associated smartwatches.

While the initial version of these advanced AR glasses is projected to be completed next year, Meta does not intend to make them widely available to consumers immediately, according to one of our sources.

It’s important to note that Meta has already undergone a significant reduction of its workforce, cutting around 21,000 jobs since November of the previous year. This downsizing was undertaken to reassure investors, especially in the face of declining revenue growth, rising inflation, and concerns over substantial financial losses within the Reality Labs division.

In a statement made in March, Mark Zuckerberg indicated that the majority of this year’s layoffs would occur in the spring, with some transitions extending through the end of the year in a limited number of cases.