Facebook plans to invest at least $10 billion in its Metaverse division, which is developing AR and VR hardware, software, and content under the Facebook Reality Labs banner this year.
“We are committed to bringing this long-term vision to life and we expect to increase our investments for the next several years,” the company wrote in its third-quarter earnings release this afternoon. Facebook sees AR and VR as being core to “the next generation of online social experiences.”
The new division, which already creates the Oculus Quest headset and Portal collection of calling devices, is clearly being positioned as Facebook’s next big thing.
Metaverse: The next generation of online social experiences
“The next generation of online social experiences” will be built on “augmented reality and virtual reality,” according to Facebook.
Facebook has committed a significant amount of resources to virtual reality and augmented reality, including establishing a product department to work on the metaverse this year. Even, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been talking about the metaverse for the past several months.
Facebook announced earlier this month that it will hire 10,000 individuals to assist in the development of the metaverse.
According to the firm, the future computing platform has the potential to help people unlock new creative, social, and economic possibilities.
