Waveguides & AR Optics

Meta has taken the lead in the race to build AI-enabled smart glasses, with EssilorLuxottica saying it sold 7 million pairs of AI-enabled glasses in 2025 and Meta growing its smart glasses sales threefold last year. The company recently showed Fortune its growing family of smart glasses at a private demo room at its Menlo Park, California headquarters, including the flagship Ray-Ban Wayfarer camera-enabled glasses with an updated nine-hour battery life, Ray-Bans with a lens display and a neural wristband, new audio-only smart glasses without a built-in camera, new styles including Aviator frames, and prototypes like the Orion augmented reality glasses. Meta on Wednesday also announced a new pair of virtual reality glasses that it says weigh only 100 grams and will ship in the spring for $1,299. Meta's Ray-Ban Display glasses start at $799, its third-generation flagship camera-enabled Ray-Bans cost $449, and the new audio-only glasses start at $349 in the Ray-Ban Clubmaster and Burbank styles. Meta is already facing multiple proposed class-action lawsuits related to its smart glasses, including one alleging it sent some footage captured by the glasses, including highly personal material, to third-party human reviewers for annotation and AI development, allegations Meta disputes. Competitors are trying to win by making privacy central to their designs, with AI startup Even Realities focusing on text-only displays and Taiwan-based HTC Corp.'s Vive Eagle glasses turning off recording if anyone says, Stop recording.

Global AI glasses shipments reached a record 4.2 million units in the first half of 2026, up 127% year-on-year, according to new Omdia data. Meta retained its dominant position, shipping 3.4 million AI glasses to capture an 81.3% market share, while Even Realities climbed from fifth place in 2H25 to second in 1H26 with 102,000 units shipped, a 2.4% share, on demand for its G2 series across North America and Western Europe. While the US remains by far the largest AI glasses market, shipments in Mainland China surged 306% year-on-year in 1H26, though that market remains highly fragmented, with top players Alibaba, INMO, and Xiaomi collectively accounting for just 46.1% of shipments. Omdia Senior Analyst Qiran Ju said growth was driven by Meta's continued market momentum and a wave of new market entrants from China, while Research Director Jason Low said the fragmentation seen in China signals there is no single, one-size-fits-all solution in the AI glasses space. Omdia also warned that intensifying scrutiny of camera-equipped AI glasses will require companies to define exactly what always-on cameras capture, show users how that content is used, and guarantee it never reaches third parties.

Dutch nanoimprint lithography startup Morphotonics has raised €40 million to scale up production and push into optical components for data centers. The round, part of an extended raise that began in 2024 and was gathered in multiple installments, was backed by 3M Ventures, Innovation Industries, BOM, and Invest-NL, with participation from the European Innovation Council Fund, Dutch family office Ernij Next, and the European Investment Bank. Morphotonics spent 12 years developing its nanoimprint lithography process, which creates a stamp applied to photosensitive materials to make displays for augmented reality glasses, privacy screens for cars, and the waveguides used in smart glasses such as the Meta Ray-Ban Display, Even Reality, and Magic Leap. The company has used the funding to more than double its headcount to 60 employees from roughly 30 in September 2024, when CEO Hugo Da Silva joined, and expects headcount to stabilize around 70 to 75 people. Its next machine, currently being built, will be capable of producing more than 6 million waveguides a year and is expected to start shipping early next year, while the data-center push targets co-packaged optics using Photonic Integrated Circuits, an area where it has not yet shipped machines but says customers have validated its technology. Roughly 90% of revenue currently comes from hardware sales, with 10 to 15 systems deployed globally, and the company expects to reach 50 deployments in the next two to three years.

Lante Optics released its 2026 interim report, showing first-half net profit attributable to the parent rose 163.2% year on year to 272 million yuan. Operating revenue was 1.01 billion yuan, up 75.5% year on year. Net profit attributable to the parent after deducting non-recurring items was 267 million yuan, up 172.0% year on year. Net operating cash flow was 391 million yuan, up 148.5% year on year. Second-quarter operating revenue was 561 million yuan, up 74.7% year on year, and net profit attributable to the parent was 143 million yuan, up 146.5% year on year. The company said its optical prism, optical lens, and optical wafer businesses all improved significantly, benefiting from demand for micro-prisms in consumer electronics, rapid growth in optical communications, and accelerating deployment of augmented reality applications.

Nika Optics announced the completion of a Series A funding round of nearly 100 million yuan. This round was jointly invested by BOC International Investment, Tianjin Binhai Industrial Fund, Gobi Partners, China Securities, and Allwinner Technology. The funds will mainly be used for the production line launch of volume holographic optical waveguides and to accelerate technological iteration.

Susquehanna analyst Mehdi Hosseini raised the price target on Applied Materials to $900 from $575 while maintaining a Positive rating. The analyst cited channel checks indicating an expanding SCE backlog extending beyond one year, with wafer fab equipment spending reaching as high as $300 billion or more in 2026 and 2027 estimates, along with new 2028 projections. Separately, Reuters reported on June 16 that Applied Materials signed a long-term agreement with EssilorLuxottica to develop augmented reality display technology and AI glasses, with plans to scale commercialization and focus on advanced optical technologies.