- Meta is betting on humanoid robots as it creates a new product group.
- In an internal memo, Meta CTO announced the hiring of the former CEOs of Cruise and The RealReal.
- Marc Whitten joins as VP of robotics. John Koryl becomes VP of retail to boost smart glasses sales.
Meta's next big bet is humanoid robots.
The company has hired the former CEOs of Cruise and The RealReal to lead its robotics ambitions and boost sales of smart glasses, according to an internal memo seen by Business Insider.
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth announced the hiring of former Cruise CEO Marc Whitten and John Koryl, the former CEO of luxury reseller company The RealReal, in the memo shared with employees on Friday.
Bosworth said Whitten will be vice president of robotics and will lead the new product group, while Koryl is joining as vice president of retail, where he will focus on "supercharging" its retail initiatives.
Explaining Meta's rationale for entering the consumer humanoid robotics space, Bosworth said it would leverage its open-source large language model Llama, and help Meta create more value with its mixed and augmented reality programs.
"The core technologies we've already invested in and built across Reality Labs and AI are complementary to developing the advancements needed for robotics, like hand tracking, material simulation in Gemini, Aria, low-bandwidth, always-on sensors, and more," he wrote.
Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
In a separate memo last month, Bosworth announced a series of reorgs, which show that Meta is making Reality Labs a bigger part of its core business.
Brent Harris, VP of Meta's wearables business group, and Brett Vogel, the company's VP of product marketing and Metaverse, and the product marketing team now work directly under the team of Meta's Chief Marketing Officer, Alex Shultz.
Bosworth also told employees in November that 2025 is "most critical" for its metaverse bets and it could be a "legendary misadventure" if the company doesn't boost sales.
Read Bosworth's full memo:
Welcome Marc Whitten, VP Robotics, and John Koryl, VP RetailI'm excited to announce two exceptional leaders joining Reality Labs, reporting to me:We are establishing a new Robotics product group and Marc Whitten will be joining as our new VP Robotics to lead this group. Marc is a seasoned product leader with a proven track record of driving innovation, having led teams at Unity, Amazon, and Sonos, as well as being one of the founding team members on the Xbox team. He most recently served as CEO of Cruise.Our new Robotics product group will focus on research and development in the space of consumer humanoid robots with a goal of maximizing Llama's platform capabilities. The core technologies we've already invested in and built across Reality Labs and AI are complementary to developing the advancements needed for robotics, like hand tracking, material simulation in Gemini, Aria, low-bandwidth, always-on sensors, and more. We believe that expanding our portfolio to invest in this field will only accrue value to Meta AI and our mixed and augmented reality programs. This work is moving quickly and we'll share more updates soon.John Koryl, VP Retail, joins us to focus on supercharging and growing our first-party retail initiatives. It's no secret that products like Quest, Ray-Ban Meta, and AI wearables require a different kind of customer experience beyond the standard retail offerings—our recent Meta Lab concept in LA is proof of that. We see an opportunity to build more direct expertise in the space and then share what we have learned with all of our retail partners who will continue to drive the bulk of our sales volume. Koryl has deep experience in novel retail solutions, spanning marketplaces, luxury, specialty, and mass retail after starting his career in the technology space. He most recently took on turning around The RealReal's business and applying customer-centric and data-driven tactics to enact meaningful change to the company's bottom line.Please welcome both Marc and Koryl to RL, and you'll be hearing more from them soon.
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