"The Trump administration’s trade war with China resulted in a failed funding round led by a Chinese investor, which put the company in dire straits financially. "
Trump is a convenient scapegoat here but in no way related to why they failed. Meta was headed to guardianship not long after the Meta2 was released.
Overall Meta was just a poor experience with basically zero traction. They changed their hardware approach from the Meta1 to the 2 and it created a completely different experience while on the side the Hololens was blowing everyone out of the water and they weren't in any position to compete. Add to that the complete collapse of Magic Leap and the bubble burst for AR this round.
Reinforcing again - Augmented Reality is probably the hardest market/technology to succeed or even just stay alive in.
Many startups are on their deathbed before finally succeeding. A famous example is Fred Smith, FedEx founder, gambling the company's last $5k, in order to come up with $24k for a deadline[1]. Had the cards come up differently, or a political wind had made gambling illegal, FedEx would have failed, and someone would have been able to say that logistics was "a hard market to succeed or even just stay alive in", and even be correct! The casino (or lack thereof) would have been a "convenient scapegoat". But it doesn't change the fact that having the chance to have these kinds of lucky turnarounds seem to play a pivotal role in a lot of success stories.
Trump is a convenient scapegoat here but in no way related to why they failed. Meta was headed to guardianship not long after the Meta2 was released.
Overall Meta was just a poor experience with basically zero traction. They changed their hardware approach from the Meta1 to the 2 and it created a completely different experience while on the side the Hololens was blowing everyone out of the water and they weren't in any position to compete. Add to that the complete collapse of Magic Leap and the bubble burst for AR this round.
Reinforcing again - Augmented Reality is probably the hardest market/technology to succeed or even just stay alive in.