Nearly $600M in deep out-of-the-money puts highlights tail-risk positioning, though flows point more to volatility strategies than to outright bearish bets.
BUSINESS
Meta is shutting down its VR metaverse
Meta has officially set a date for the end of its virtual reality metaverse experiment. Horizon Worlds, the social VR platform that sat at the center of Mark Zuckerberg’s 2021 bet on the metaverse, will be removed from Quest headsets on June 15, 2026. The app will disappear from the Quest store by March 31, and a mobile-only version will be all that remains.The announcement, posted to Meta’s community forums, confirmed that popular destinations including Horizon Central, Events Arena, Kaiju, and Bobber Bay will no longer be available in VR starting March 31. After June 15, creators will no longer be able to build, publish, or update VR worlds. The platform continues as a smartphone app, but the original vision is gone.The timeline of Facebook’s VR retreatWhen Meta changed its name from Facebook in October 2021, Zuckerberg described the metaverse as the next frontier of computing and predicted it would reach a billion users within a decade. Horizon Worlds launched later that year as the flagship social experience for Quest headsets. The reality fell well short of the ambition. The platform never drew more than a few hundred thousand monthly active users, a fraction of what would have been needed to justify the investment, per CNBC.The retreat has been building for months. In January 2026, Meta cut roughly 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division, about 10% of the unit. Three internal game studios were shut down entirely: Sanzaru Games, Twisted Pixel, and Armature Studio. Ouro Interactive, formed in 2023 specifically to build first-party content for Horizon Worlds, saw significant staff reductions. Supernatural, the VR fitness app Meta acquired for $400 million in 2023, was moved to maintenance mode with no new content planned.The June shutdown is the final chapter in a series of cutbacks that had already stripped most of the ecosystem around Horizon Worlds.Facebook/Meta made a costly betReality Labs, Meta’s division responsible for VR hardware, software, and the metaverse, has accumulated roughly $70 billion in cumulative operating losses since 2021, per CNBC. The losses have grown each year. In the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, the division posted an operating loss of $6.02 billion on $955 million in revenue.Reality Labs annual operating losses2021: $10.2 billion2022: $13.7 billion2023: $16.1 billion2024: $17.7 billion2025: $24.1 billionThe mobile pivot effectively concedes that VR hardware was never going to be the gateway to mass adoption that Meta had envisioned. The company is now targeting the 3.5 billion users on its Family of Apps rather than the roughly 25 million Quest headsets it has sold. Roblox, the platform Meta positioned Horizon Worlds to compete with, now has more than 150 million daily users without requiring any hardware at all.
Meta has pulled back its virtual reality investments.Economou/GettyImages
Where Meta is going insteadThe resources being pulled from VR are flowing almost entirely toward artificial intelligence. Meta guided for $115 billion to $135 billion in capital expenditures for 2026, nearly double the $72 billion it spent in 2025, with the vast majority directed at AI infrastructure, data centers, and chips. Zuckerberg described 2026 as the year of “advancing personal superintelligence” in his post-earnings statement in January.How Meta is redeploying the capitalAI infrastructure: $115 to $135 billion in 2026 capex, nearly double 2025 spending, focused on data centers and chipsLlama models: Meta’s open-source AI model family, with the next frontier model expected later in 2026Ray-Ban smartglasses: Over two million units sold, with production capacity being doubled by ethe nd of 2026Agentic AI: Enterprise-focused AI workflows through Meta’s Superintelligence LabsThe company’s Ray-Ban smartglasses have emerged as the hardware story Meta is now telling investors. Where Quest headsets required users to fully immerse themselves in a virtual world, the glasses enhance the physical world without disrupting it. That distinction has proven commercially meaningful in a way that Horizon Worlds never did.META shares closed at $615.68 on March 18, down more than 22% from their 52-week high of $796.25. Wall Street has been broadly supportive of the AI pivot, with a consensus analyst price target around $860, but the stock has traded under pressure as investors weigh the scale of the company’s 2026 spending commitments.What it means for Quest usersFor the relatively small but dedicated community that had built a presence inside Horizon Worlds, the shutdown is a concrete loss. Community-made experiences, including social spaces and support groups that had developed a regular following, will not carry over to mobile. Meta framed the separation as a way to let each platform grow with greater focus, but the VR community that invested in building there gets nothing in return.The mobile version of Horizon Worlds will continue, but it functions as a different product aimed at a different audience. Whether it can compete in a crowded mobile gaming space against Roblox, which has spent years building its creator economy, is a separate question entirely. The VR experiment is over. The mobile one is just beginning.Related: Meta weighs drastic workforce decision after $135 billion guide
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Clark Howard’s ‘Half-Tank’ Strategy To Save on Gas
Gas prices are moving up across the country, and the pain at the pump is hitting nearly everyone.
But for those of us buying regular gasoline, there is a specific pattern that happens during times of high volatility — and it creates a massive opportunity for you to save if you change your habits.
Stop Waiting for the “E” Light
When prices are jumping around like they are now, my number one piece of advice is this: Start shopping when you hit half a tank.
If you wait until you are running on fumes, you are a “hostage” to whatever price is at the next station you see. You lose your power as a consumer. Instead, follow this strategy:
Monitor your route: Once you hit a half tank, start paying attention to the signs on your normal commute.
Pounce on the lag: In times of volatility, some stations haven’t received a new load of fuel yet, so they are still selling “older,” cheaper gas. If you see a price that is significantly lower than what you’ve seen recently, pull in and fill up right then.
Check the gap: I recently looked at several metro areas and found as much as a $1.75 per gallon difference within just a five-mile radius. That is an enormous spread!
Use your tools: Don’t just rely on what you see from the road. Use GasBuddy.com or their app. There could be a station just a mile away — perhaps a warehouse club or a supermarket — that is absorbing the price increase to get you into the store.
Final Thoughts
Normally, you might see a 50-cent or maybe a dollar difference between the cheapest and most expensive gas near you. But when oil prices move quickly, that gap widens.
Retailers like Walmart, Costco, or your local grocery chain often use gasoline as a marketing tool. They may intentionally delay raising their prices to lure you in, while the station on the corner raises prices the moment the wholesale cost ticks up. By staying at a half tank, you have the flexibility to hunt for these “marketing” prices without the stress of running out of fuel.
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