Meta To Lay off Employees From Its Reality Labs’ Silicon Unit
The silicon unit focuses on developing custom chips that power the AR and VR hardware produced by Meta’s Reality Labs division.
- Meta had announced in April that it would lay off thousands of employees across its major properties.
- According to an internal post on Workplace, the company seems to be planning to lay off people in the silicon unit of its Reality Labs division.
In April this year, social media giant Meta announced that it would lay off thousands of people in the coming months across almost all its major properties, including its metaverse-oriented Reality Labs. As if keeping its promise, the company is planning to conduct a set of layoffs in the silicon unit of its Reality Labs division, according to sources familiar with the development.
In a post on its internal discussion forum Workplace, the company informed its employees about the decision. The post also said that employees would be informed about their status with the company by early Wednesday morning.
The extent of layoffs in the silicon unit is yet unknown. If the layoffs are massive, it can hurt the company’s efforts to build AR and VR products that enable access to its metaverse.
Meta is already producing and has announced a slew of metaverse-oriented hardware. For example, the company makes a line of mixed reality (MR) headsets called Quest. It has also partnered with Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica to design smart glasses that can speak with the wearer and stream video through a new AI virtual assistant. The company is further reportedly working on a few other metaverse-oriented products.
Almost a week ago, the company announced new versions of its headset (Quest 3) and smart glasses, among a few other products, at its annual event, Meta Connect 2023.
The 600-employee silicon unit or the Facebook Agile Silicon Team (FAST) focuses on developing custom chips that power the virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) hardware produced by Meta’s Reality Labs division. Yet, the company is struggling to make chips that can compete with those made by external providers. As such, it has turned to Qualcomm for its devices currently available.
See more: More Than 11,000 Meta and Hundreds of Salesforce Employees Handed Pink Slips
Layoffs Part of Meta’s Cost-Cutting Measures?
Meta already laid off around 21,000 people since November 2022, possibly to reassure its investors that it was reining in costs amid declining revenues and profits, high inflation, economic uncertainties, and concerns that Reality Labs was losing too much money. As such, more layoffs were expected this year, as the company had announced in April. Further, a restructuring of FAST was expected since the spring when a new executive was hired to lead the unit.
As such, the ongoing layoffs may be part of the company’s cost-cutting or restructuring measures.
How do you think the layoffs at Meta will affect the company? Let us know on LinkedIn, X, or Facebook. We’d love to hear from you!
Image source: Shutterstock
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