Meta has burned $15 billion trying to build the metaverse — and nobody's saying exactly where the money went

Since the beginning of last year, Meta has spent more than 15 billion dollars on its Reality Labs metaverse venture, but so far, the company hasn't disclosed what, precisely, is being spent.

The company is spending a lot of money.

The transparency with investors has been a disaster according to a tech analyst.

"This continues to be a risky bet because, for now, they're betting money on the future while they continue to have major problems with their core business," he said.

The company revealed that it had sunk more than $10 billion into the venture, with no end to the losses in sight. The company has lost more than $5 billion in the first six months of the year, and some analysts think the losses will surpass last year's.

A spokesman for the company said that Meta doesn't break out the financial details for Reality Labs.

The amount of money Meta has spent on its metaverse venture so far is concerning, especially given the updates it provided this week, including a new $1,500 headset and a version of avatars with legs.

Mark Zgutowicz, an analyst at Benchmark, said he doesn't know for sure, but he estimates that at least half of Reality Labs' losses are due to the massive research and development costs that go into building a completely new world.

He said that there is no real metaverse until everyone can wear glasses that don't make them look like aliens.

Zgutowicz said that Meta has legitimate reasons for trying to build his own things.

He said that it's hard for them to go out and acquire other unique software companies because they're so tied down with regulatory burdens.

How and when they expect to get a return on their spend could be better.

Meta is not the only company that has declined to list certain losses.

Ivan Feinseth is a tech analyst at Tigress Financial Partners.

People thought he was crazy when Facebook first bought the photo sharing site. They said "this guy is just going to throw all this money away" and that turned out to be the right thing to say about the acquisition. He said that it wasn't just for Facebook in the world of acquisitions.