Meta to hold 2026's 'most important' meeting: What's the agenda?
What's the story
Meta's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Andrew Bosworth is set to hold what he has called the "most important" meeting of the year. The meeting, scheduled for January 14, will be a rare in-person event. This is especially noteworthy given Meta's remote-first work culture. According to Business Insider, managers have asked employees to "drop what they are doing" and attend this crucial gathering.
Meeting details
Meeting to involve teams within Reality Labs
The meeting will involve teams from Reality Labs, the Meta unit responsible for wearables and virtual/augmented reality products. This is a significant departure from the usual practice of not holding large in-person meetings in this division. One employee told Business Insider that managers had made it clear that other work should be deprioritized to ensure attendance at this meeting.
Financial concerns
Reality Labs under scrutiny for financial performance
Reality Labs has been under a lot of pressure due to its financial performance. Since 2020, the division has reportedly lost over $70 billion, despite some commercial success with products like Ray-Ban smart glasses. The meeting comes at a particularly difficult time for the unit, which has seen multiple rounds of layoffs in the last year and was planning further budget cuts.
Future prospects
Bosworth's address may clarify Meta's future direction
The financial pressures on Reality Labs have raised internal questions about the future of Meta's metaverse and hardware ambitions. This makes Bosworth's upcoming address all the more important. A Harvard University computer science graduate, Bosworth started his career as a field sales manager before working with Microsoft and Facebook. He currently leads the company's efforts in building next-generation computing platforms, metaverse technologies, and consumer hardware across various projects.