Key facts
- Gabriel Aul, head of Meta's Metaverse Products Group, retired in February.
- Saxs Persson has replaced Aul as the new head of the metaverse products group.
- Meta has significantly increased investment in AI, doubling capital expenditures.
- The company has been scaling back parts of its metaverse ambitions.
Gabriel Aul, who led Meta's Metaverse Products Group since October of last year, announced his retirement in February, according to a memo. He briefly stayed on in an advisory role and fully left Meta last month. Aul was replaced by Saxs Persson, a former Epic Games executive who joined Meta in an October reshuffle. Meta's chief technical officer, Andrew Bosworth, confirmed Aul's retirement and wished him well. The company has been investing billions in its metaverse efforts but is now shifting significant investment towards AI, doubling capital expenditures to between $125 billion and $145 billion this year. This strategic shift has led to layoffs within the Reality Labs division and questions about the future of Meta's virtual-world strategy. The previous top metaverse executive, Vishal Shah, left in an October 2025 reorganization for a role within Meta's superintelligence efforts. Bosworth has stated that the metaverse is about blending digital and physical worlds to define the next computing platform, not just Horizon Worlds.