Meta spent $19 billion on VR last year, and 2026 won’t be any better

Earlier this month, Meta laid off 10% of the staff at Reality Labs, its virtual reality unit. It is said cut Up to 1000 employees. Now, in a development that appears directly related, the company has revealed that the unit lost several billion dollars last year.

On Wednesday, dead Earnings report It showed that the beleaguered VR business lost about $19.1 billion in 2025, slightly more than it lost in 2024 (that year, losses hovered around $17.7 billion). The report showed that the unit recorded a loss of $6.2 billion in the fourth quarter.

These losses were compared to the unit’s sales: $955 million in the fourth quarter and about $2.2 billion throughout 2025.

During the company’s earnings call on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg struck a tone of optimism for his company’s virtual reality team while noting that losses in 2026 are expected to be largely the same.

“For Reality Labs, we are directing most of our investments toward future glasses and wearables, with a focus on making Horizon a massive success on mobile and making VR a profitable ecosystem over the coming years,” Zuckerberg said during the call. However, the CEO noted that losses are expected to continue. “I expect Reality Labs’ losses this year to be similar to last year,” Zuckerberg said, noting that this year “is likely to be the peak, as we begin to gradually reduce our losses going forward.”

When Meta announced its pivot to “transformation” in 2021, the move was met with a certain amount of skepticism, and during its first year of VR efforts, the company announced I faced harsh criticism– even referred to as “”International laughterAfter nearly half a decade, those doubts emerged It hasn’t exactly calmed down. As the VR sector continues to lose money and Meta continues to shift aggressively away from VR and toward AI, it’s unclear what exactly will turn around the struggling business.

CNBC last week I mentioned thatIn addition to the layoffs, Meta was planning to close a number of its VR studios, another sign of the company’s waning interest in VR. The company also recently announced that it will be Stop the standalone Workrooms app– which the company offered to office employees as a virtual reality space that can be used to hold meetings.