Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently conveyed the company’s steadfast commitment to its metaverse vision and artificial intelligence (AI) during a second-quarter earnings call reflecting a $37 billion loss in Reality Labs.

Reality Labs, Meta’s augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) division, generated $276 million in Q2 revenue, experiencing a 39% decrease due to lower VR headset sales. The division’s expenses stood significantly higher at $4 billion, resulting in an operating loss of $3.7 billion.

Despite the financial challenges, Zuckerberg remains optimistic about Reality Labs’ role in Meta’s long-term strategy, highlighting it as a significant opportunity for the company.

Interestingly, Meta expects more substantial year-over-year increases in operating losses for Reality Labs. The driving factors behind this forecast are Meta’s dedication to advancing product development in AR/VR.

Furthermore, Zuckerberg stressed the significance of AI in the near term and the metaverse in the long term as the two major technological waves they are currently riding. According to the Meta CEO, the firm’s investments in AI have yielded substantial progress, evident in the positive impact across their ranking and recommendation systems. In his words:

The billions of dollars we’ve spent on AI infrastructure are clearly paying off across our ranking and recommendation systems and improving engagement and monetization.

The company is also actively developing new products using the AI system called Llama, aiming to enhance user experiences across their services and facilitate immersive world-building, avatars, and objects within the metaverse.

While Meta did not specifically mention crypto, NFTs, or blockchain during the conference call, it illustrated the firm’s focus on AI and the metaverse after suspending its NFT endeavors early this year.