Meta's metaverse lead quietly left four months ago

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 in February in a memo. "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 was replaced by Saxs Persson, a former Epic Games executive who joined Meta in the October reshuffle. 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, reality labs, metaverse, gabriel aul, saxs persson, vishal shah, andrew bosworth, epic games, superintelligence, linkedin