Meta Has Already Won the Smart Glasses Race

At Meta’s Q2 2025 net telephone astatine the extremity of July, Mark Zuckerberg didn’t clasp back. “If you don’t person glasses that person AI,” he warned, “you’re astir apt going to beryllium astatine a beauteous important cognitive disadvantage compared to different people.”

Forget smartphones. According to Zuck, the existent interface of the aboriginal is what’s sitting connected your nose. These AI-powered specs, helium argues, volition “see what we see, perceive what we hear, and speech to us” successful existent time—offering a benignant of integer copilot for mundane life. And if that imaginativeness sounds a small dystopian, it’s besides very, precise lucrative.

Meta’s Ray-Ban astute glasses—built successful collaboration with eyewear juggernaut EssilorLuxottica—have go a astonishment hit. Since launching the 2nd procreation successful October 2023, they’ve sold much than 2 cardinal units. Sales tripled successful Q2 2025 alone, helping thrust Meta’s 22 percent year-over-year gross growth. Zuckerberg has reportedly challenged teams to propulsion that fig to 5 cardinal by year’s end.

With the advertisement concern plateauing and VR inactive mostly a wealth pit, astute glasses are emerging arsenic a uncommon hardware merchandise radical mightiness really want. That apt explains the company’s determination to spell each successful by acquiring an astir 3 percent equity stake successful EssilorLuxottica, which, successful summation to Ray-Ban, besides makes Oakley, Persol, and Prada glasses, positive galore more. It's a transaction that has been valued astatine $3.5 billion—a determination that formally makes Meta a strategical number shareholder and elevates it beyond its anterior relation arsenic a exertion partner.

Although the concern strengthens Meta’s entree to EssilorLuxottica’s manufacturing expertise and retail organisation and makes Meta the glasses maker's 2nd largest shareholder, it is not ample capable to assistance power oregon a spot connected the board. Reports suggest Meta whitethorn summation its involvement to astir 5 percent implicit time, signaling deeper committedness alternatively than takeover.

But why? Meta already had a thriving collaboration with the institution via Ray-Ban Stories and Ray-Ban Meta. Why spell beyond licensing? Why bargain in?

A Seat astatine the Table

Zuckerberg is betting connected astute glasses arsenic the adjacent platform. And platforms, arsenic Meta knows amended than anyone, aren’t thing you lease.

“An equity involvement aligns Meta’s incentives with EssilorLuxottica’s semipermanent occurrence and deepens the integration betwixt the 2 firms,” says Bryce Quillin, economist and co-founder of luxury strategy bureau It’s A Working Title. “Rather than one-off licensing sales, the equity involvement signals a shared roadmap.”

Meta wants a spot astatine the table, not conscionable a spot successful the showroom. And a 3 percent involvement buys visibility into R&D, power implicit merchandise timelines and a ft successful the doorway connected decisions astir however tech and plan germinate together. “This volition springiness Meta a relation successful determining timelines and diagnostic prioritization for astute glasses,” Quillin adds. “An initial, astir 3 percent involvement is meaningful—enough to power strategical absorption and merchandise priorities.” And successful a class this nascent, that benignant of power is essential.

“It's astir ensuring that EssilorLuxottica besides prioritizes astute glasses arsenic a business. After all, it's rather a ample institution that isn't arsenic focused connected tech arsenic Meta,” agrees Anshel Sag, main expert astatine Moor Insights & Strategy.

But level bets aren’t conscionable astir what goes wrong the glasses, they’re besides astir wherever and however those glasses get into customers’ hands. “One of the biggest advantages, beyond the evident plan capabilities and marque portfolio, is EssilorLuxottica’s planetary web of stores and support,” says Sag. “Wearables are profoundly personal. Getting the acceptable right, balancing the merchandise decently and supporting the customer—that’s wherever they shine.”

You can’t conscionable physique astute glasses and driblet them connected Amazon. You request fitting. You request prescriptions. You request a lawsuit work acquisition that doesn’t impact a chatbot. Apple already owns that infrastructure done its planetary retail empire. Meta doesn’t. EssilorLuxottica offers an explicit lane to that level of support.

“The astir important happening EssilorLuxottica brings to the table, beyond its brands similar Ray-Ban and Oakley, is its retail organisation power,” agrees Luca Solca, planetary luxury goods assemblage caput astatine Bernstein. “That should beryllium peculiarly invaluable for companies similar Meta oregon Google, who don’t person immoderate carnal organisation to talk of, dissimilar Apple.”

Meta has the software. EssilorLuxottica has the storefronts. And successful a merchandise class that indispensable beryllium fitted, adjusted, prescribed—and, yes, fashion-matched—that retail web is gold.

Smart Specs, Meet Fashion World

The Ray-Ban Meta glasses are a occurrence mostly due to the fact that they look similar Ray-Bans. That sounds obvious, but successful the satellite of wearable tech, aesthetics person killed much ideas than mediocre artillery life. Frames are fashion. No 1 wants to deterioration a prototype connected their face.

That’s wherever EssilorLuxottica comes in. “It gives [Meta] an edge, due to the fact that they picked the institution that owns and partners with the astir licensed manner brands,” says Sag. “Google has Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, but that’s not the aforesaid arsenic having Ray-Ban, Oakley, Prada, Chanel, and galore others.”

EssilorLuxottica owns, manufactures, and distributes much than a 3rd of the planetary eyewear market. In tech terms, it's the operating strategy of the glasses world—the infrastructure furniture connected which astir of the manufacture runs. That makes it an incredibly invaluable ally, particularly for a institution specified arsenic Meta that knows however to physique platforms but not needfully products radical want to wear.

So far, the Meta-Ray-Ban collaboration has been amazingly effective. Unlike earlier misfires successful face-worn tech (remember Google Glass? ​​Snap Spectacles?), these glasses really look similar ... glasses. “Ray-Ban’s Wayfarers are an iconic, mass-market plan that lends itself good to the inclusion of tech,” says Jitesh Ubrani, probe manager astatine WW Device Trackers. “But different styles don’t connection capable abstraction for the tech. Adding displays presents further challenges, a larger artillery adds weight, and other processing generates heat.”

There's a crushed the archetypal palmy astute specs look similar they're from the 1950s. That other thickness isn’t conscionable retro flair, it’s hiding a processor and a battery. But that method constraint creates a originative opportunity: In the close frame, astute tech tin disappear. And transforming functional, medical-grade eyewear—like medicine glasses—into stylish, mass-market manner accessories is precisely what EssilorLuxotica does best.

Still, blending astute tech with precocious manner isn’t without risk. Do those 2 worlds truly privation to stock a chemoreceptor bridge? “Meta and EssilorLuxottica anticipation this collaboration volition beryllium 1 of the archetypal palmy attempts to integrate high-tech applications, similar AI, into luxury products,” says Quillin, “While the Ray-Ban concern appears palmy truthful far, it’s unclear whether consumers volition clasp tech features built into high-end products similar Prada, Chanel, oregon Versace eyewear.”

Meta, for its part, is betting connected convergence. The institution sees a aboriginal wherever manner and tech are inseparable. In a enactment titled “Personal Superintelligence,” Zuckerberg imagined a aboriginal wherever “personal devices similar glasses that recognize our context—because they tin spot what we see, perceive what we perceive and interact with america passim the day—will go our superior computing devices.” That imaginativeness of AI-integrated eyewear shows conscionable however profoundly Meta believes the aboriginal volition beryllium some wearable and ever on.

We mightiness spot the archetypal glimpse of Zuckerberg's wearable aboriginal arsenic soon arsenic September. Bloomberg reports that this is erstwhile Meta volition unveil its latest astute glasses, implicit with a heads-up display, that volition supposedly driblet aboriginal this autumn with a starting terms of astir $800.

The Competitive Firewall

Still, portion Meta whitethorn person taken the archetypal credible plaything astatine consumer-grade astute specs, it’s hardly alone. Google has softly rebooted its wearable ambitions aft the much-memed demise of Google Glass, acquiring smart-glasses startup North successful 2020, and reportedly moving with manufacturers similar Samsung and Qualcomm to make an XR (extended reality) ecosystem.

Then, successful July, Google doubled down with a $100 cardinal concern successful Gentle Monster, the South Korean eyewear marque known for its fashion-forward, tech-ready designs. Together, they’re processing a next-gen brace of astute glasses that volition supposedly fuse AI capabilities with high-end aesthetics—less cyborg, much catwalk.

Apple, existent to form, is trying to play the agelong game. The Vision Pro was ne'er meant to unrecorded connected your look full-time, but it’s a stepping stone. In choosing to tackle the acold trickier occupation of afloat immersive VR first, Apple efficaciously stake connected the incorrect horse—pouring effort into a exertion that’s dazzled reviewers but hasn’t won implicit the mean consumer.

Meta, by contrast, staked retired a beachhead with simpler AR glasses that looked similar thing radical mightiness really deterioration successful public. Now, reports from Bloomberg and The Information suggest Apple is moving connected lighter, much wearable AR glasses, though they whitethorn beryllium years from release. When they bash arrive, Apple volition person the vantage of polished bundle and its ain planetary retail footprint, portion Meta is racing to unafraid the aforesaid organisation vantage via EssilorLuxottica.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, meanwhile, has agelong stake connected AR. Snap has invested much than $3 cardinal implicit the past 11 years to physique its ain AR platform. Meta, by contrast, spends much than that every quarter done its Reality Labs division, which is focused connected some AR and VR—but still, Snap’s persistence underscores conscionable however agelong the runway is for this market.

Then there’s the chaotic card: China. ByteDance, TikTok’s genitor company, has invested successful XR, acquiring VR headset shaper Pico and releasing its ain astute glasses successful prime markets. Xiaomi and Huawei person besides entered the fray, blending AI and camera functions into (relatively) stylish frames that are progressively indistinguishable from modular eyewear. They whitethorn not beryllium targeting Western luxury consumers yet, but accelerated iteration successful China’s monolithic home marketplace could good nutrient breakout hardware standards that aboriginal spell global.

Calling Dibs

There’s besides the substance of preemptive exclusivity. With rumors that different tech giants were eyeing EssilorLuxottica, Meta’s concern successful the Ray-Ban shaper functions arsenic a strategical lock-in—a firm mentation of calling dibs. “I heard competitors similar Google were sniffing around, and this concern was Meta’s mode of cementing a semipermanent relationship,” says Sag.

At its core, this determination by Meta, Google, Apple, Xiaomi, Huawei, and others is simply a contention to specify the hardware and organisation exemplary for a post-smartphone epoch earlier idiosyncratic other does. By securing the world’s largest eyewear maker, with its unmatched retail footprint and heavy portfolio of luxury brands, Meta is gathering some a moat and a launchpad.

“Apple and Google volition surely person an easier way guardant acknowledgment to Meta’s aboriginal and highly ample concern successful this category,” says Ubrani. “However, Meta’s borderline whitethorn not beryllium successful hardware. Rather, it’s successful plan and organisation since they’ve partnered with the largest eyewear shaper successful the world.”

“Beyond that, Meta besides has an highly palmy societal web to beforehand their glasses,” says Ubrani, “and that volition stay a competitory advantage. That said, astute glasses volition person to connection a large bundle experience, too—and truthful acold determination isn’t a wide victor successful that space.”

In the end, the existent prize isn’t conscionable winning the smart-glasses race, it’s owning the level that comes aft smartphones. To triumph that future, you don’t conscionable request AI and hardware—you request trust, sensation and territory. Apple has the stores. Google has the search. Meta has your friends. But EssilorLuxottica has your face. And successful a wearable-first world, that mightiness beryllium the astir invaluable existent property of all.