--- title: Quest maker Meta is having its cake and eating it description: Meta has announced a $14 billion data center venture with BlackRock in El Paso, Texas, just months after raising Meta Quest 3 prices due to an AI-driven memory... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/quest-maker-meta-is-having-its-cake-and-eating-it-9n1bgcrey twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Quest maker Meta is having its cake and eating it | daily.dev og:description: Meta has announced a $14 billion data center venture with BlackRock in El Paso, Texas, just months after raising Meta Quest 3 prices due to an AI-driven memory... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/quest-maker-meta-is-having-its-cake-and-eating-it-9n1bgcrey og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/9n1bgcREy.png og:image:alt: Quest maker Meta is having its cake and eating it og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Quest maker Meta is having its cake and eating it **[Game Developer](https://daily.dev/sources/gamedeveloper)** · 3 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Meta has announced a $14 billion data center venture with BlackRock in El Paso, Texas, just months after raising Meta Quest 3 prices due to an AI-driven memory chip shortage. The piece highlights the contradiction: Meta is a major contributor to the component shortage that it cited as justification for passing costs to consumers. Meanwhile, Meta's Reality Labs division has lost $83.6 billion over six years, and the company has shuttered multiple internal VR studios. Microsoft is noted as exhibiting similar behavior, raising Xbox prices while committing billions to AI infrastructure. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why did Meta raise the price of the Quest 3 and Quest 3S headsets? Meta raised prices on April 19, 2026 due to a global surge in the cost of critical components, particularly a memory chip shortage affecting VR and other consumer electronics categories. Meta said it needed to pass some of that cost increase to consumers to keep producing and supporting Quest hardware and software. _Anyone weighing hardware upgrades against rising component costs can follow VR pricing trends on daily.dev._ ### What is causing the memory chip shortage affecting VR and consumer electronics hardware? The memory chip shortage is being driven by heavy investment in AI data centers from companies including OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta, which are consuming large quantities of memory chips for AI infrastructure. This surging demand has driven up component costs across consumer electronics categories, including VR headsets. _Developers tracking how AI infrastructure demand ripples into hardware costs can follow the story on daily.dev._ ### How much is Meta spending on its new AI data center in El Paso, Texas? Meta and BlackRock are investing around $14 billion into a new data center campus in El Paso, Texas, through a strategic venture announced in 2026. The facility will have 1 gigawatt of compute capacity, and Meta will be its initial sole occupant, with capacity expected to come online in 2028. _Those following AI infrastructure buildouts and their market impact can track updates like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Meta to sell $30B in bonds to build AI datacenters](https://daily.dev/posts/meta-to-sell-30b-in-bonds-to-build-ai-datacenters-wwmxprekb) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Meta is raising $13bn for one Texas data centre, a new ceiling for single-site AI financings](https://daily.dev/posts/meta-is-raising-13bn-for-one-texas-data-centre-a-new-ceiling-for-single-site-ai-financings-nq0faqocq) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Meta is still burning money on AR/VR](https://daily.dev/posts/meta-is-still-burning-money-on-ar-vr-qrxywcmlw) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#vr](https://daily.dev/tags/vr), [#ai-infrastructure](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-infrastructure) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/quest-maker-meta-is-having-its-cake-and-eating-it-9n1bgcrey) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Quest maker Meta is having its cake and eating it","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/quest-maker-meta-is-having-its-cake-and-eating-it-9n1bgcrey","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/quest-maker-meta-is-having-its-cake-and-eating-it-9n1bgcrey"},"datePublished":"2026-07-28T12:12:41.700Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:34:04.636Z","description":"Meta has announced a $14 billion data center venture with BlackRock in El Paso, Texas, just months after raising Meta Quest 3 prices due to an AI-driven memory...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/816fec239f7ab418bcef9e5817a325dd?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/816fec239f7ab418bcef9e5817a325dd?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Game Developer","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Game Developer","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/5fbb7418db8746769a45f55309bbdf13","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/gamedeveloper"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/quest-maker-meta-is-having-its-cake-and-eating-it-9n1bgcrey","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"vr,ai-infrastructure","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Game Developer","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/gamedeveloper"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Quest maker Meta is having its cake and eating it"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/quest-maker-meta-is-having-its-cake-and-eating-it-9n1bgcrey#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why did Meta raise the price of the Quest 3 and Quest 3S headsets?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Meta raised prices on April 19, 2026 due to a global surge in the cost of critical components, particularly a memory chip shortage affecting VR and other consumer electronics categories. Meta said it needed to pass some of that cost increase to consumers to keep producing and supporting Quest hardware and software. Anyone weighing hardware upgrades against rising component costs can follow VR pricing trends on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What is causing the memory chip shortage affecting VR and consumer electronics hardware?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The memory chip shortage is being driven by heavy investment in AI data centers from companies including OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta, which are consuming large quantities of memory chips for AI infrastructure. This surging demand has driven up component costs across consumer electronics categories, including VR headsets. 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