--- title: "Facebook’s Metaverse Division Lost Nearly $14 Billion Dollars Last Year" description: "Facebook's Reality Labs metaverse division lost almost $14 billion dollars last year — so why has the stock price increased?" date: "2023-02-02" modified: "2023-02-02" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-metaverse-lost-14-billion-dollars" categories: - "Future Society" - "Metaverse" - "Virtual Reality" tags: - "facebook" - "mark zuckerberg" - "metaverse" - "the digest" --- # Facebook’s Metaverse Division Lost Nearly $14 Billion Dollars Last Year ![Facebook's Reality Labs metaverse division lost almost $14 billion dollars last year — so why has the stock price increased?]() *\Image: Kirill Kudryavetsev via Getty / Futurism\* ## Operating Losses Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apparently lost a flabbergasting $14 *billion* — yes, that's a"billion" with a "b" — dollars last year on his metaverse moonshot. In its [quarterly earnings report to investors](), Meta, which is [better known as Facebook]() to normal people, reported a loss of $13.7 billion dollars in 2022 alone on its Reality Labs division, which oversees the company's controversial metaverse. Combined with 2021's $10.19 billion dollar loss, that brings the amount of money Zuckerberg has spent on building his cartoonish, [legless metaverse]() to just under $23 billion. Comparatively, the Reality Labs division only brought in $2.16 billion in revenue for 2022, which is down from its 2021 gains of $2.27 and accounts for less than two percent of all of Meta's earnings last year, [per *CNBC*'s analysis](). As that report notes, [Zuckerberg said last year]() that he expects even greater operating losses in 2023 and that those losses "will grow significantly year-over-year." "Beyond 2023," the CEO told the financial news outfit last summer, "we expect to pace Reality Labs investments such that we can achieve our goal of growing overall company operating income in the long run." ## Wall Street Surprise As one might imagine, [investors historically haven't loved Zuckerberg's cavalier attitude]() with their money — though as markets reporting indicates, the revenue gleaned from all of Meta's operations holistically has resulted in a stock bump that's acted as a balm to the company's bruising metaverse efforts. Indeed, [*MarketWatch* reports]() that analysts expected about $31.5 billion in fourth-quarter Meta earnings, and after Wednesday's earnings report indicated that it had beaten that out by nearly a billion, the company's share cost jumped 20 percent. Overall, it seems that in spite of losing a boatload of money for a product that [still sucks](), the markets are reacting favorably to Zuckerberg's metaverse dreams. But then again, both [Wall Street]() and [Silicon Valley]() do love an expensive fantasy. **More on Facebook:** [*Whistleblower Claims Facebook Can Secretly Drain Your Phone's Battery on Purpose*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()