Meta Platforms(US:META) Sou Hu Cai Jing·2025-12-04 14:40Core Insights - Meta is preparing to significantly reduce its investment in the "metaverse" projects, which were previously seen as the company's future direction by CEO Mark Zuckerberg [1][2] - The company is considering cutting the metaverse department's budget by up to 30% next year, impacting products like Meta Horizon Worlds and the Quest virtual reality division [1] - This budget reduction may lead to layoffs starting as early as January, as the technology has not generated the expected competitive dynamics in the industry [1][2] Financial Performance - The Reality Labs division has incurred losses exceeding $70 billion since 2021, with the current exchange rate translating to approximately 495.06 billion RMB [2] - Meta's stock price rose by 5.5% in pre-market trading following the news of potential budget cuts [3] Strategic Shift - Zuckerberg has shifted focus away from the metaverse, emphasizing generative AI and related hardware, such as smart glasses in collaboration with Ray-Ban [2] - Analysts have long suggested that Meta should abandon the costly Reality Labs projects that fail to generate substantial revenue [4] - There are predictions that Meta may close projects like Horizon Worlds to reallocate resources towards AI product lines [4]