Meta is still burning money on AR/VR

Meta has accumulated $83.5 billion in losses on its Reality Labs division since 2021 (averaging $4 billion per quarter) while simultaneously pivoting to massive AI infrastructure investments of $125-145 billion in 2026, with executives admitting they continue to underestimate compute needs. This represents a strategic shift from failed metaverse ambitions to competing directly with AI leaders, creating substantial long-term capital expenditure uncertainty that has unsettled investors despite strong quarterly financial performance. For IT organizations, this signals that enterprise AI investments will likely accelerate as major tech companies compete for dominance, potentially driving up costs for cloud infrastructure, talent, and specialized compute resources.