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Just because the end concept was useless doesn’t mean the individual pieces don’t have value. Meta’s loose wallet probably kickstarted the work of dozens of smaller companies in the hardware space whose work can be parlayed into other areas.

It was not very efficient usage of the money. It actually ended up paying for overpriced real estate in the bay area and vanity toys such as Porsches.

Considering other mega corps would either hoard the cash or increase dividends, the fact that any money went to engineers is a win. Saying the money would be better spent funding startups does not reflect any real possibility.

That would be useful if they open sourced the effort. Otherwise it will die of total irrelevance 15-30 years from now.

Facebook's mismanagement of VR financed and launched Anduril.

If you look around at the startup scene the past 5-10 years, has it really been any better?

Meta has more than enough money to do all of that at the same time