Facebook plans to spend at least $10 billion this year on Facebook Reality Labs, its metaverse division tasked with creating AR and VR hardware, software, and content.

We are committed to bringing this long-term vision to life and we expect to increase our investments for the next several years,” the company wrote in its third-quarter earnings release this afternoon. Facebook sees AR and VR as being core to “the next generation of online social experiences.”

The division, which already makes the Oculus Quest headset and Portal lineup of calling devices, is clearly being positioned as the next big thing inside of Facebook. For one, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been talking about the metaverse nonstop for the past several months. And today, Facebook said it’s going to begin reporting earnings specifically for its Reality Labs segment, while Facebook’s main ads business — a staggering $28 billion this last quarter alone — will be reported under another bucket. It’s a sign to investors that the Reality Labs business matters and should be judged separately from how they value Facebook today.

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