Meta’s metaverse division has a new leader — again.
The latest executive shuffle inside Reality Labs comes as Meta continues to scale back parts of its metaverse ambitions and pour billions into AI, raising questions about where the company’s virtual-world strategy fits in its future.
Gabriel Aul, who had served as the head of the metaverse products group since October of last year, announced his retirement after a few months on the job in February, according to a 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,” Meta’s chief technical officer, Andrew Bosworth, wrote in the note.
Aul, the former Metaverse unit head, was replaced by Saxs Persson, a former Epic Games executive who joined Meta in the October reshuffle, according to the memo. Aul briefly stayed on at Meta in an advisory role and fully left Meta last month, his LinkedIn shows.
The previous top metaverse executive, Vishal Shah, left in the October 2025 reorganization for a top position inside Meta’s superintelligence effort.
Meta’s big bet on the metaverse hasn’t quite worked out, despite billions of dollars in spending. In March, Meta conducted substantial layoffs across the Reality Labs division, which oversees the metaverse. The company also shut down support for its virtual world Horizon earlier this year on its virtual reality headsets, only to reverse that decision later, according to an Instagram post from CTO Bosworth.
Meta hasn’t given up on the metaverse. A spokesperson pointed Business Insider to comments from Bosworth saying that the metaverse is not limited to Horizon Worlds, but about blending digital and physical worlds to “define the next computing platform.”
Meta has shifted much of its investment into AI, doubling capital expenditures to $125 billion to $145 billion this year.
Aul didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Aul was one of the top two executives in charge of Meta’s metaverse efforts alongside Ryan Cairns, who was appointed to lead Horizon in October.
The memo announcing Aul’s departure also says that Persson will “fully take over” as the head of Horizon. It makes no mention of the Metaverse unit once headed by Aul.
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