Mark Zuckerberg is not ready to give up on the metaverse yet

Meta's R&D cuts are not an admission of his pet project's failure

- DAVE LEE is Bloomberg Opinion’s US technology columnist.

A sense of smug satisfaction wafts across the internet whenever a report indicates Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse vision is in trouble.

So it was last week when my colleague Kurt Wagner broke thenews the Meta was planning cuts of up to 30% in the Reality Labs division that handles the experimental technology.

“Finally,” offered Henry Blodget, a man who made his name hyping doomed dotcom stocks. “Points for trying. Now on to other things.” The Wall Street Journal called it a ‘pivot’ away from a “yearslong vision.” Investors cheered. “The potential cost cuts could somewhat offset the historic spend to build out Meta’s Al infrastructure,” TD Securities analysts wrote, estimating cost savings of $5 billion to $6 billion. Meta shares closed the week up almost 4%.

But this isn't a pivot from the metaverse. It's a rebrand. Not for the first time, Meta’s CEO has reframed his ambitions to make his corporate spending more palatable to Wall Street—and it's worked.