Meta swaps – Gabriel Aul, head of Meta’s metaverse products group, announced his retirement after a few months in February, and has fully left the company. Saxs Persson, a former Epic Games executive, is set to take over, as Meta continues shifting spending toward AI and s
When Gabriel Aul walked out of Meta’s metaverse orbit. it wasn’t the kind of exit that gives teams time to prepare. The memo announcing his retirement said he would stay on “for a few more months. ” then move into “much deserved retirement” after his February announcement—followed by a complete departure last month.
Aul had taken charge of the metaverse products group in October of last year, only to step away shortly after. In the note. Meta’s chief technical officer. Andrew Bosworth. wrote: “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.”.
In his place. the internal reshuffle names Saxs Persson. a former Epic Games executive who joined Meta in the October reshuffle. The memo says Persson will “fully take over” as the head of Horizon. the virtual reality platform that sits inside Meta’s metaverse efforts. Aul, the memo indicates, left behind an advisory role briefly—his LinkedIn shows he fully left Meta last month.
The turnover comes as Meta keeps reorganizing Reality Labs, the division that oversees its metaverse ambitions. The company’s previous top metaverse executive, Vishal Shah, left in the October 2025 reorganization for a top position inside Meta’s superintelligence effort.
Meta also points its spending toward other priorities. It has doubled capital expenditures to $125 billion to $145 billion this year. even as the metaverse remains a visible target for cost cuts and product changes. In March, Meta conducted substantial layoffs across the Reality Labs division. Earlier this year. Meta shut down support for its virtual world Horizon on its virtual reality headsets. only to reverse that decision later. according to an Instagram post from CTO Bosworth.
Behind the personnel shifts is a persistent effort to keep the metaverse story alive. A spokesperson directed attention to comments from Bosworth saying the metaverse is not limited to Horizon Worlds. Bosworth framed it as blending digital and physical worlds to “define the next computing platform.”
The sequence of moves—Aul’s short stint. Shah’s earlier exit toward superintelligence. layoffs in March. and the Horizon support reversal—maps onto a company that is changing course while insisting the direction still matters. Horizon gets leadership coverage and operational attention. but the metaverse products team that Aul headed disappears from the memo’s description once Persson takes over. Even the way the company talks about the metaverse keeps the definition broad, rather than anchored to one platform.
Aul did not respond to a request for comment.
The memo also reveals how Horizon leadership is being reshaped internally: 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. When Aul exits. Bosworth’s note makes room for Persson’s full takeover—but it does not mention the metaverse unit once headed by Aul.
Meta’s metaverse bet hasn’t stopped, but the staffing churn and shifting budgets underline how unsettled the strategy still feels—especially for a division where product decisions have recently swung, spending has faced scrutiny, and leadership plans have changed within months.
Meta Reality Labs metaverse Gabriel Aul Saxs Persson Andrew Bosworth Horizon Ryan Cairns Vishal Shah Epic Games AI spending capital expenditures layoffs