Meta's titanic project will soon exceed 100 billion dollars of investment

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In 2014, Meta (which was still Facebook) paid $2 billion to acquire Oculus, the virtual reality specialist. This transaction made headlines in the tech press. But that $2 billion is nothing compared to the money the group has spent on research and development to improve the technology over the past 10 years.

Indeed, mixed reality is one of Mark Zuckerberg's big priorities, as he is convinced that augmented reality glasses will one day replace smartphones. And in addition, we learn via an article in the Financial Times that in 2025, Meta's investments in mixed reality could exceed the symbolic mark of 100 billion dollars.

Based on the group's latest results, analyst estimates and its own calculations, the Financial Times estimates that these investments already exceed 80 billion dollars. In 2024 alone, Meta invested 19.9 billion dollars in virtual reality and augmented reality. However, this should increase these investments in 2025, which means that Meta should therefore spend more than 20 billion dollars in research and development, for virtual reality and augmented reality.

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Towards an acceleration ?

In any case, even if the Reality Labs division, which markets the Quest mixed reality headsets, as well as the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, is not yet making a profit, the group is starting to see encouraging results. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg indicated that the group's smart glasses, which incorporate Meta AI artificial intelligence, “are a real success”. He also indicated that 2025 will be a decisive year for this product.

The Meta Quest mixed reality headsets also sold well at Christmas. And if Meta does not yet market real augmented reality glasses, capable of replacing smartphones, it is getting closer to this goal. Indeed, in 2024, Meta presented its first prototype, called Orion, which it will continue to improve.

• Every year, Meta invests billions of dollars in its Reality Labs branch, which specializes in virtual reality and augmented reality
• And this year, these investments could cross the symbolic threshold of 100 billion dollars
• Reality Labs is not yet making a profit, but Meta is encouraged by the success of its connected glasses

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