Meta appoints former Epic Games executive to lead metaverse projects
What's the story
Meta's Reality Labs, the division responsible for its metaverse products, has seen a major leadership change. Gabriel Aul, who has been leading the metaverse products group since October last year, announced his retirement in February. The news was shared by Andrew Bosworth, Meta's Chief Technical Officer (CTO), in a memo, obtained by Business Insider. Aul has now been succeeded by Saxs Persson, an ex-Epic Games executive who joined Meta during an October reshuffle.
Transition details
Aul stayed on in an advisory role
After his retirement announcement in February, Aul stayed on at Meta in an advisory role until last month. His LinkedIn profile shows he left the company completely then. Persson has now taken over as the head of Horizon, a virtual reality platform developed by Meta. The memo announcing Aul's departure also mentions that Persson will "fully take over" as the head of Horizon. It makes no mention of the Metaverse unit once headed by Aul.
Strategic shifts
Meta scales back its metaverse ambitions
The departure of Aul and the replacement by Persson come as Meta continues to scale back its metaverse ambitions. This comes despite billions of dollars in spending on the project. In March, the company laid off a large number of employees from Reality Labs. It also pulled support for its virtual world Horizon on VR headsets earlier this year but later reversed that decision.
AI emphasis
Shift toward AI
Despite the latest project cuts and layoffs, Meta hasn't completely given up on the metaverse. Bosworth has clarified that the concept goes beyond just Horizon Worlds and is about merging digital and physical worlds to "define the next computing platform." Meanwhile, the company has shifted much of its investment toward artificial intelligence (AI), doubling capital expenditures this year to between $125 billion and $145 billion.