Facebook's futuristic project has lost 41.5 billion euros in 4 years (the big boss still believes in it)

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The Reality Labs division of Meta, Facebook's parent company, already generates revenue from sales of its mixed reality headsets, like the Quest 3. But those revenues are almost negligible compared to the crazy sums that Meta is spending to improve its technology. Indeed, the group's ultimate goal is to develop augmented reality glasses that will one day replace smartphones, and that can almost be controlled by thought.

While waiting for this vision to come to fruition, the project continues to lose billions of dollars every year. And according to a recent analysis by Yahoo Finance, over the last 4 years, Reality Labs’ cumulative losses have been $45 billion, equivalent to €41.5 billion today. And this analysis only takes into account the losses of 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Before 2020, the group was already investing massively in mixed reality. For comparison, this $45 billion is almost the capitalization of Snapchat and Pinterest combined.

One could say that it is necessary to invest such sums to develop a technology of the future. However, the Yahoo Finance article suggests that these losses are also a symptom of organizational problems within Meta.

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First prototype arrives

In any case, the Reality Labs division will continue to lose money. But the good news for the group is that these investments are less criticized than one or two years ago. Today, Meta’s apps and services are in great shape. And the group can also boast of not being behind in the race for artificial intelligence. Otherwise, the fact that Apple is also present in mixed reality can be seen as validation of these investments. Over the past 12 months, Meta's share price has increased by 67.58%.

Meta should have something concrete to present soon . In June, Mark Zuckerberg indicated, during an interview with a YouTube channel, that Meta's “holographic” glasses prototype. However, the group is still only ready to present a prototype, and prefers to take its time with marketing, so as not to sell an imperfect product to consumers.

• Meta's Reality Labs division, which develops its mixed reality products, is already generating revenue from sales of products like the Quest 3

headset

• However, these revenues are very low compared to the losses recorded by this division, whose objective is to offer mixed reality glasses that will be able to replace smartphones
• According to Yahoo Finance, in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, these losses were $45 billion
• Meta is preparing to present the first prototype of its glasses mixed reality (to differentiate from headsets which are not compact)

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