Meta confirms office space, jobs target in downtown Durham
After months of keeping its local plans quiet, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has confirmed to The News & Observer it has office space in downtown Durham.
The office, at the American Tobacco Campus, “will eventually be home to about 100 enterprise engineers,” Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels said.
Meta’s plans have been the subject of rumors since last spring, when the company’s job board listed several positions in Durham for its Reality Labs division, which is working to build virtual and augmented reality.
Meta joins other large tech companies like Microsoft, Google, and soon Apple, with offices in the Triangle.
Reality Labs is central to Meta’s big bet on the metaverse, a network of digital spaces where users can interact in virtual reality. Reality Labs products include VR software, glasses and headsets. Other companies have ambitious aspirations in the metaverse, including Epic Games, the Cary-based creator of the popular game Fortnite.
Since changing its name from Facebook in 2021, Meta has poured billions into Reality Labs. Though the company reported Reality Labs had an operating loss of $13.7 billion in 2022, it remains committed to its metaverse strategy, said Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s founder and CEO.
“None of the signals that I’ve seen so far suggests that we should shift the Reality Labs strategy long term,” he told investors during the company’s most recent earnings call on Feb. 1.
Like many major tech firms, Meta has made significant job cuts as the sector recedes from a period of rapid hiring in 2020 and 2021. In November, Meta announced layoffs affecting around 11,000 employees, and according to the Financial Times, the company plans additional layoffs as early as March.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
