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Meta leads race for AI hardware’s “post-smartphone” future with smart glasses

A Ray-Ban partnership, fashion-first design, and a head start have put Meta ahead of OpenAI, Apple and reportedly SpaceX in the race to define next-gen AI hardware.

newest coverage 3h agosummary written 1h ago3 pieces NewswiresGoogle News

What to know

  • Meta's smart glasses sales grew threefold in 2025, with EssilorLuxottica reporting 7 million pairs of AI-enabled glasses sold that year.
  • Meta's underlying AI models trail OpenAI and Anthropic, but the company has established an early hardware lead by partnering with Ray-Ban parent EssilorLuxottica and prioritizing fashion over tech features.
  • OpenAI and, reportedly, Elon Musk's SpaceX are developing competing AI hardware devices; Musk disputes the SpaceX report.
  • The competition over hardware 'form factors' for AI is seen as potentially as important as the race for the best frontier models, since it determines how people access AI regardless of whose models power it.

Alex Himel Meta VP of wearablesMeta Company developing AI smart glassesEssilorLuxottica Ray-Ban parent and Meta's hardware partnerOpenAI AI lab developing competing hardwareElon MuskElon Musk SpaceX founderApple Tech giant developing AI hardware

Meta leads race for AI hardware’s “post-smartphone” future with smart glasses
Fortune

How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articles

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  1. 2

    Fortune concludes Meta leads the post-smartphone hardware race

    The article frames the contest to define the next computing hardware platform as potentially as consequential as the race for the smartest AI models, with Meta currently ahead despite weaker underlying AI models.

    “We're able to keep adding this stuff into something that you're already wearing for other reasons…”
    — Alex Himel, Meta VP of wearables · source
    1. 1 outlet How Meta took the lead in the race for the post-smartphone world

      first by Fortune, 3h ago

  2. 1

    Rivals OpenAI and reportedly SpaceX push into AI hardware race

    Fortune reports that OpenAI and, reportedly, Elon Musk's SpaceX are developing new AI-friendly hardware devices, alongside Apple and various startups; Musk disputes the report about SpaceX.

  3. background

    Fortune details Meta's fashion-first strategy behind its lead — Meta VP of wearables Alex Himel explains that customers use smart features only about 10% of the time, so EssilorLuxottica held glasses to 50 grams or below to keep them desirable as fashion items first.

  4. background

    Meta shows Fortune its expanding smart glasses lineup in Menlo Park — Meta gave Fortune a private demo at its Menlo Park headquarters of its growing family of devices, including Ray-Ban Wayfarer camera glasses with nine-hour battery life, Ray-Bans with a lens display and neural wristband, new audio-only glasses without cameras, new Aviator styles, and Orion AR prototypes.

  5. background

    Meta triples smart glasses sales as EssilorLuxottica sells 7 million pairs — Meta's smart glasses sales grew threefold over the past year, and Ray-Ban parent EssilorLuxottica reported selling 7 million pairs of AI-enabled glasses in 2025.