Mark Zuckerberg needs to cut jobs and stop plowing funds into the metaverse, according to an open letter penned by one of its shareholders.

Altimeter Capital Management, who holds 0.1 per cent of the company, outlined a three-step plan to Zuckerberg in the letter.

Altimeter said annual free cash flow can be doubled to $40 billion if it cut headcount by at least 20 per cent, trimmed capital expenditure by at least US$5 billion to US$25 billion a year, and capped annual metaverse spend to US$5 billion from the current US$10 billion.

This final point is the most urgent.

Meta’s Reality Labs unit, tasked with the company’s leap into the metaverse via augmented and virtual reality, reported a massive A$9.2 billion loss for the first six months of 2022.

Altimeter said this level of spend “in an unknown future is super-sized and terrifying, even by Silicon Valley standards.”

Meta will report third-quarter results on Wednesday, at which point the level of this spend may become more apparent.