Facebook Will Spend $10 Billion On Metaverse This Year

Facebook has major ambitions in the metaverse space, and now the company has put a dollar amount to it: $10 billion. That's how much Facebook plans to spend this year alone on creating the metaverse as the company transitions from a social media company to a metaverse company.

Mark Zuckerberg told investors that Facebook will not make money on this investment right away, but it's about setting the company up for success down the road.

"This is not an investment that is going to be profitable for us any time in the near future," Zuckerberg told analysts, as reported by Reuters. "But we basically believe that the metaverse is going to be the successor to the mobile internet."

The Verge said $10 billion is just the start. "We are committed to bringing this long-term vision to life and we expect to increase our investments for the next several years," Facebook reported.

The company's metaverse ambitions are housed inside Facebook's Reality Labs division, which is where Oculus Quest is currently set up.

Facebook's gigantic investment in the metaverse is not surprising, as Zuckerberg has said his ambition is for Facebook to transition from "people seeing us primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company." To that end, Facebook now has more than 10,000 people working on various hardware products, including augmented reality glasses, to help the metaverse come to life.

It's not just Facebook that believes the metaverse is coming. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick believes a Ready Player One-like metaverse is on the way.

In other news, Facebook has been facing increased scrutiny after whistleblower Frances Haugen released sensitive company documents to The Wall Street Journal that detailed claims of Facebook acting as a harm to society. Facebook may also be planning to change its name.