Operational Excellence (OPEX) Daily Briefing – Friday, December 05, 2025: Meta Slashes 30% of Metaverse Budget: A Strategic Pivot Toward Operational Efficiency.
Điểm Tin Operational Excellence (OPEX) Mỗi Ngày – Thứ Sáu, Ngày 05/12/2025: Meta Cắt 30% Ngân Sách Metaverse: Tín Hiệu Chuyển Hướng Sang Vận Hành Hiệu Quả.
Welcome to my unique weekday article for the paid subscriber-only edition.
Operational Excellence (OPEX) Daily Briefing – issued on weekdays (Monday to Friday).
Điểm tin Operational Excellence (OPEX) hằng ngày (phát hành các ngày thứ Hai đến thứ Sáu).
This is the bilingual post in English and Vietnamese. Vietnamese is below.
Đây là bài viết song ngữ Anh-Việt. Tiếng Việt ở bên dưới.
English
PART 1 – OFFICIAL INFORMATION
According to the latest reports on December 4, 2025 from Reuters, Bloomberg, CNBC and The Wall Street Journal, Meta Platforms — the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — has officially announced its decision to cut approximately 30% of its investment budget for the Metaverse division, including Reality Labs, AR/VR devices, and various digital-space expansion projects. This marks Meta’s most significant strategic pullback in three years since CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared the Metaverse to be “the future of the Internet.”
According to Reuters, the reduction amounts to billions of dollars in R&D spending being eliminated, particularly across teams focused on virtual reality (VR headsets), augmented reality (AR glasses), and the Horizon digital world platform. Internal sources noted that Meta is instructing units within Reality Labs to “reassess the entire project portfolio” and prioritize areas with near-term commercial potential over long-term, experimental initiatives.
Bloomberg reported that the budget cuts come as Reality Labs continues to post consecutive quarterly losses, with cumulative losses exceeding $50 billion since 2021. Meanwhile, Meta faces intense investor pressure related to operational efficiency, profit margins, and a strategic shift from the Metaverse toward AI, cost optimization, and stable cash flow. Bloomberg cited analysts saying the move “is not just cost-cutting, but a strategic repositioning of the company in the AI era.”
CNBC stated that Meta is reallocating part of Reality Labs’ budget to faster-growing areas such as generative AI, AI for advertising, AI recommendation engines, and large-scale operational infrastructure. This aligns with a broader trend across the U.S. tech sector, where many firms are pulling back from long-horizon projects and prioritizing AI initiatives that generate near-term revenue.
The Wall Street Journal emphasized that the 30% Metaverse budget reduction is widely seen as a clear signal that Meta is shifting its focus from its long-term vision of virtual worlds toward operational–financial–profit discipline. WSJ also reported that Meta is requiring project teams to submit revised ROI metrics, revenue projections, and quarterly operational cost reports, replacing the previous emphasis on vision-driven growth.
A notable point highlighted by both Reuters and Bloomberg is that Meta is simultaneously accelerating operational automation, increasing investments in AI infrastructure, integrating large AI models (LLMs) into its advertising systems, and optimizing content recommendation engines to maximize profitability for Facebook and Instagram. This shows that Meta’s overarching strategy is shifting toward AI-first operations, with the Metaverse downgraded to a secondary priority.
Additionally, Reuters reported that Meta will continue maintaining selective parts of Reality Labs but will require staff reductions, fewer high-risk experiments, and a stronger focus on revenue-generating projects such as the Quest product line, enterprise-training VR applications, and AR tools for e-commerce.
Overall, official sources indicate that Meta’s decision is not merely a financial tightening, but a major strategic adjustment: a shift from a long-term Metaverse vision to a model centered on operational efficiency, sustainable growth, and AI-driven business transformation. This is widely viewed as a pivotal move for Meta in 2025, reflecting competitive pressures, market behavior, and the growing demand for operational optimization.