Altimeter CEO Cautions Facebook Over Huge $100B Metaverse Investment

Following the intending massive investment of Facebook in the metaverse, a shareholder and CEO of Altimeter Capital Brad Gerstner has warned Mark Zuckerberg to cut its metaverse investment to just $5 billion as per a report.

Gerstner argued that making a $100 billion metaverse investment is quite outlandish given the fact that the arena is still in its infancy. He urged the tech giant company to scale down its investment with immediate effect. 

It should be noted that Gerstner’s Altimeter Capital is a key shareholder in the tech giant company. Gerstner’s firm owns approximately 0.11% share in Meta according to Hedge Follow.

The warning is coming on the heels of a significant fall in Facebook’s stock price within the last 18 months. Gerstner maintains that his message is directed to both Zuckerberg and the board of directors. 

While he expresses support for Meta’s investment in the metaverse, he urges the company to re-evaluate the volume of its investment. 

He went further to disclose that Meta is willing to commit $10 billion to $15 billion annually into its Metaverse project with close to 10 years before yielding results. These include AR/VR tech and Horizon World. 

However, Gerstner urges the company to devote more attention and investment on artificial intelligence (AI) and invest less on Metaverse because the former has the potential to accelerate economic productivity. 

Gerstner added that Meta’s stock has fallen 55% compared to an average of 19% that fellow tech giants lost grip. 

Facebook Amid Metaverse Uncertainty

It appears that Altimeter CEO Brad Gerstner is not the only one sceptical over metaverse investment. Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin recently remarked that the metaverse is going to happen but corporate entities like Facebook may not be found there.

The "metaverse" is going to happen but I don't think any of the existing corporate attempts to intentionally create the metaverse are going anywhere. https://t.co/tVUfq4CWmP

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 30, 2022

Buterin justified his claim on the premises that it is too early to determine or know what the people want. The metaverse is regarded as a highly-interactive 3D online world largely aided by augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

Meanwhile, Meta company is yet to react to the warning issued by one of its shareholders, Gerstner.