Meta’s total investment in virtual and augmented reality is set to top $100bn this year, as its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has declared 2025 will be a “defining year” for its smart glasses. In its latest annual report, Meta revealed it invested $19.9bn in its Reality Labs division last year, hitting a new high after more than a decade of heavy losses. The unit develops its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which Zuckerberg last week called a “real hit”, as well as its Quest VR headsets, which have been slower to take off. The company sold 1mn sets of its Ray-Ban glasses in 2024, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Silicon Valley-based company’s cumulative investment in VR and AR product development and acquisitions has now exceeded $80bn since the initiative began in 2014 when it bought VR headset maker Oculus, according to analyst estimates and the Financial Times’ calculations based on company disclosures. Meta’s annual report said it expected the division’s annual investments to increase further in 2025, suggesting that more than $20bn would be added to that total this year. The figures show the extraordinary cost of Zuckerberg’s long-term effort to build a new computing platform that could one day replace smartphones and reduce Meta’s dependence on Apple’s and Google’s devices for distribution of its apps and services.

Full analysis : Meta has invested $80 billion plus in AR and VR since 2014 when it bought Oculus, and is on track to top $100 billion in 2025; a source says it sold 1 million Ray-Bans in 2024.