Top Metaverse Executive Departed Quietly 4 Months Ago
▼ Summary
– Gabriel Aul, head of Meta’s metaverse products group since October, announced his retirement in February and has since left the company.
– Aul was replaced by Saxs Persson, a former Epic Games executive who joined Meta in the October 2025 reorganization.
– Meta conducted substantial layoffs in Reality Labs and briefly shut down support for its Horizon virtual world before reversing that decision.
– Meta has shifted billions of dollars in investment toward AI, doubling capital expenditures to $125–145 billion this year.
– Despite scaling back parts of its metaverse ambitions, Meta says the metaverse is about blending digital and physical worlds to define the next computing platform.
Meta’s metaverse division is undergoing yet another leadership change, marking the third shift in command within just over a year. This latest shakeup inside Reality Labs comes as the company continues to dial back parts of its virtual-world ambitions while funneling billions into artificial intelligence, leaving many to wonder where the metaverse fits in Meta’s evolving roadmap.
Gabriel Aul, who took over as head of the metaverse products group in October, quietly announced his retirement in February after only a few months in the role, according to an internal memo obtained by Business Insider. “Even though we will still have Gabe for a few more months, please join me in wishing him all the best in his much deserved retirement,” wrote Meta’s chief technical officer, Andrew Bosworth.
Aul was replaced by Saxs Persson, a former Epic Games executive who joined Meta during the October reshuffle. Aul stayed on briefly in an advisory capacity before fully leaving the company last month, as indicated by his LinkedIn profile. The previous metaverse chief, Vishal Shah, also departed during the October 2025 reorganization to take a senior role in Meta’s superintelligence division.
Despite billions poured into the effort, Meta’s big bet on the metaverse has yet to pay off. In March, the company conducted significant layoffs within Reality Labs, the division responsible for metaverse development. Meta also initially shut down support for its virtual world, Horizon, on its VR headsets earlier this year, only to reverse that decision later, according to a post from Bosworth on Instagram.
Still, Meta insists it hasn’t abandoned the metaverse. A company spokesperson pointed to Bosworth’s comments that the metaverse extends beyond Horizon Worlds and is about blending digital and physical realities to “define the next computing platform.” Meanwhile, Meta has redirected much of its investment into AI, doubling capital expenditures to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion this year.
Aul did not respond to a request for comment. He was one of two top executives overseeing Meta’s metaverse strategy, alongside Ryan Cairns, who was appointed to lead Horizon in October. The memo announcing Aul’s departure also states that Persson will “fully take over” as head of Horizon, though it makes no mention of the metaverse products group Aul once led.
(Source: Business Insider)
