Four years in, Meta has burned through $45 billion chasing its metaverse dream

Bottom line: More than four years after Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta to chase his metaverse vision, the company has poured tens of billions into the effort – with little to show for it. The ongoing losses have raised serious doubts about the strategy and its long-term viability. Insiders say the metaverse project has become a financial sinkhole, consuming $45 billion by early 2025. That's nearly equal to the combined market caps of social media rivals Snap and Pinterest – or the amount Elon Musk paid to acquire Twitter. Worse, Zuckerberg warned in last year's earnings report that losses would continue to "increase meaningfully," whatever that means. Yahoo Finance spoke to over a dozen former high-level Reality Labs employees, who described the wing as dysfunctional and disorganized. Frequent leadership changes and constant reshuffling reportedly sowed chaos, with many managers brought in from other Meta divisions despite lacking AR and VR expertise. One former research ... Read full article.