Numbers seem to be a bit off here because author is conflating total headcount with number of engineers. If we go by ratio at similarly large FAANG companies,

Numbers seem to be a bit off here because author is conflating total headcount with number of engineers. If we go by ratio at similarly large FAANG companies, say 1/3 or 1/5 of the company's employees are engineers. > At the start of 2021, according to Statista, the social network employed 58,604 people (a huge increase from the 18,000 people that Facebook employed back in 2017). OK, so maybe 12,000 to 18,000 engineers max at the whole company? > And of that number, according to a new report from The Information, about 10,000 engineers have been tasked with significant AR and VR development work. "10,000 engineers" would indicate more than half its engineering workforce is working on AR/VR, not 20%! Something seems a bit off here, let's go to the original story from The Information to have a look. Luckily it's linked from the article: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/the-people-with-power-at-facebook-as-its-hardware-commerce-ambitions-expand https://www.theinformation.com/articles/the-people-with-powe... > The seriousness of its ambitions is reflected in its headcount: Nearly 10,000 people are working in its group developing augmented and virtual reality devices, or nearly one-fifth of Facebook’s total global workforce. Ok, phew, that's better! The Information says 10,000 people are working in it's group. Doesn't mean they're all engineers. And the ratio is closer to 1/6 or 16.66% assuming Facebook's latest headcount. And if we go by the same FAANG engineer-to-workforce ratio, that would mean something like 2,000 to 3,000 engineers in Facebook at working on AR/VR. It's not a small number, but seems more realistic.