Mark Zuckerberg is willing to lose tens of billions of dollars and anger Wall Street in his attempt to build the metaverse not only because he believes it is the future of the Internet, but because it is the best way to escape the clutches of Apple.

Relations between Apple and Facebook have been frosty for years, with Tim Cook criticizing Facebook’s reliance on user tracking to target ads since 2014. It got much worse last year, when Apple updated its operating system to prompt users to opt out. not be tracked by apps. It was a huge blow to ad-reliant social platforms, including Facebook, which said it lost $10 billion due to the change.

Zuckerberg mentioned Apple several times during a call on Wednesday…