Meta’s investment in virtual reality and smart glasses is on track to top $100 billion this year, the Financial Times reports.

Meta Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is gambling his company will succeed in developing a new computing platform to replace smartphones and that it will become so popular that Meta will sell billions of glasses equipped with artificial intelligence.

The advancement would also reduce Meta’s reliance on Apple and Google devices to distribute its apps and services.

Last year, Meta sold 1 million of its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, according to a person familiar with the matter.

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The lightweight glasses are equipped with tiny cameras, microphones and speakers to enable users to take photos, listen to music and chat with an AI assistant. Later this year, Meta expects to release a new version of the lenses with a small display.

Zuckerberg, who last week called the glasses a “real hit,” has switched from talking about an avatar-driven metaverse to discussing smart glasses powered by rapidly improving AI.

Meta also sells Quest VR, or virtual reality, headsets, which have not been as popular as the glasses.

To date, Meta’s Reality Labs has invested $80 billion in its smart glasses and VR headsets, according to analysts, since it began the endeavor in 2014 with the acquisition of Oculus.

In its annual report, Meta said it intends to spend $20 billion more on the technology this year.

“Meta’s investments in Reality Labs are eye watering, yet it’s not clear if they are unreasonable if you believe it can build the business that it’s looking to be, which is replacing [Apple’s] iOS,” said Matthew Ball, author of The Metaverse.

Ball estimates that Meta’s cumulative loss on Reality Labs to date is $75 billion.

Last year, Reality Labs brought in $2.1 billion in revenue, a 13% increase from the previous year, but suffered an operating loss of $17.7 billion, a 10% increase and a new record loss.

Ball said that if Meta’s VR and AI investments are compared to other breakthroughs by Big Tech to invent new product categories, they are not so outrageous.

Microsoft spent billions to develop its Bing search engine, as did Amazon on Alexa and Echo, and Google on cloud computing, Ball said.

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“A lot of attention is paid to Zuckerberg’s bet on Reality Labs, but that is partly because they choose to discretely report it,” Ball said.

“All of their competitors have investments that are comparable that they don’t surface.”

Regardless of Meta’s VR and AI gamble, the company remains hugely profitable, primarily due to its online advertising revenue stream. Meta’s net income rose 60% in 2024 to $62.4 billion.

Meta declined to comment for the story.