- Meta lost more than $4 billion in its quest to explore the metaverse in Q2 2024
- Meta revealed the loss in its Q2 earnings call on July 31
- The company has lost close to $60 billion since it started exploring the metaverse in 2019
Tech giant Meta has disclosed that its metaverse department, Reality Labs, suffered a $4.5 billion loss in Q2 2024. During its latest earnings call on July 31, Meta disclosed that its revenue increased by 22% to $49 billion. According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the rise in revenue was due to the success of its investments in AI and apps like WhatsApp, indicating that it’s only its metaverse business that’s struggling.
AI Doing Better Than Metaverse
According to the firm’s Q2 earnings report, Reality Labs made sales worth slightly above $350 million. The firm said that it’s not planning to stop investing in its metaverse business despite noting that Reality Labs is expected to continue making “meaningful” losses as it ventures deeper into virtual and augmented reality.
The company also revealed that its AI product, Meta AI, is receiving widespread adoption and is on track to become the leading AI assistant by the end of this year. It said that its other AI products like the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses are also recording notable adoption.
Reality Labs’ Q2 2024 losses come five months after Meta reaffirmed its commitment to the metaverse and refuted claims that it’s silently abandoning the metaverse for AI. The Zuckerberg-led company said that it still sees promising opportunities in the metaverse, adding that losses won’t hinder its metaverse mission.
Lenovo Explores the Metaverse Through Quest
Meta, through its metaverse wing, is developing a virtual reality headset known as Quest 3, which Zuckerberg used to appear on Lex Fridman’s podcast hosted on Meta’s metaverse platform Horizon Worlds.
Tech companies like Asus and Lenovo have announced plans to build Quest-compatible hardware in an attempt to increase Quest’s adoption and bring more people to the metaverse.
With Meta recording more success in its AI business, it’s to be seen whether it’ll reduce funding on its metaverse business instead of completely abandoning its metaverse exploration mission.
