• Mark Zuckerberg denied that Meta shifted its focus from the Metaverse to AI.
• “We’ve had a focus on both AI and the Metaverse for years, and we will continue to focus on both,” he said.
• The division, which houses Meta’s AR and VR projects, reported a $4 billion loss in the first quarter.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he won’t be abandoning the Metaverse, even though the company’s division that manages its virtual and augmented reality projects lost $4 billion in the first quarter.

Have recent comments from Zuckerberg and other meta leaders indicated that the company is optimistic about AI and shifted his strategy away from the metaverse. Top meta executives now spend most of their time focusing on AI, CTO Andrew Bosworth said earlier this month.

“A narrative has formed that we’re kind of moving away from focusing on the vision of the metaverse,” Zuckerberg said told investors On Wednesday. “I just want to say up front that that’s not correct. We have had a focus on both AI and the Metaverse for years, and we will continue to focus on both.”

“Building the metaverse is a long-term project, but the rationale remains the same and we remain committed to it,” he added, noting that AI investment is needed to develop the technology that powers the metaverse.

reality labsthe division, which houses Meta’s AR and VR units, including the Metaverse and Oculus Quest headsets, reported an operating loss of $4 billion in the three months ended March 31, just under the losses of $4.3 billion in the previous quarter ended December 31.

“We continue to expect reality labs operating losses to increase in 2023 year-on-year,” Meta said in its report result report. It added that it expects capital expenditures of between $30 billion and $33 billion for the year, due in part to increased investment in the company generative AI initiatives as well as its focus on Build AI capacity to support ads, feeds and reels.

“There are two major technological waves driving our roadmap — a huge AI wave today and a building metaverse wave going forward,” Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg said Meta will launch a new consumer virtual and mixed reality device later this year. “It was a very big step forward for VR and I’m really excited to show the world all the improvements and new technologies we’ve developed since then, at a price that will be affordable for many people,” he said the investors .

Zuckerberg’s comments came just a week after the company started telling techs if they were affected by Meta’s recent wave of layoffs. Meta announced that this is the case More than 11,000 employees laid off in November, and then announced another round of cuts affecting 10,000 workers four months later as part of its “Year of Efficiency”.

Zuckerberg had said the November layoffs were a “last resort” and the result of overinvestment during the pandemic.