AI / AR Smart Glasses

Deutsche Bank analyst Benjamin Black estimates Meta's Muse AI agent could generate up to 8% of the company's revenue by 2030, roughly $36 billion in sales, with a lower-end forecast of $2.4 billion. Muse has already been downloaded more than 5.1 million times, according to Sensor Tower, and Meta has signed commerce deals with Shopify and PayPal. Meta also debuted the Muse Charm in late September, a standalone pocket device built exclusively for voice interaction with the Muse agent, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg showcased a shift toward "personal superintelligence" with the Meta VR Glasses, a 100-gram spatial computing device priced at $1,299 with 5K micro-OLED displays, tethered puck processing, and native eye and hand tracking. On the smart eyewear front, Meta launched the third-generation Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 glasses starting at $249, alongside camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses for open-ear listening and AI voice interaction. Meta's stock is up 25% inside of a month.

Snap Inc. unveiled SPECS Intelligence, an anticipatory AI service spanning iPhone, Mac, and SPECS AR glasses, and announced enterprise-focused SPECS deployments with partners including Salesforce, AWS, NVIDIA, Trifork, and Hololight to support hands-free information access and secure, large-scale workplace use. The launch extends Snap's AR and AI capabilities beyond consumer social media into workplace productivity and business-to-business use cases. Snap's narrative projects $8.1 billion revenue and $384.0 million earnings by 2029, yielding a $7.33 fair value and 40% upside to its current price. The most bearish analysts had assumed only about 8 percent annual revenue growth and earnings of roughly US$14.8 million by 2029. The most immediate catalyst for Snap remains advertising recovery, while the biggest risk remains ongoing losses and cost pressures, and the company still faces legal and regulatory risks including recent social media addiction litigation.

Meta Platforms said its Muse AI assistant is coming to its AI glasses in the next few months, and the stock fell about 3.6% from Friday's close to $724.92 in Monday trading. The company plans to offer more than 100 glasses styles by year-end, and it will bring a hearing-enhancement feature to supported glasses in the U.S. later this year for $149.99 or through a Meta One subscription. The pitch is that users can look at something, ask Muse to handle it, and skip the long explanation. GuruFocus puts Meta's GF Value at $857.84, or 15.49% above the September 28 share price, with the investment case resting on whether users keep using the device and pay for what it does.

Monness, Crespi, Hardt raised its price target on Meta Platforms to $830 from $730 while keeping a Buy rating, citing last week's Meta Connect 2026 event. The new target sits about 10% above Friday's close of $751.66, though Meta shares were down 2.08% in premarket. At Connect, Meta showcased its recently launched personal AI agent Muse, unveiled Muse Charm and announced new AI glasses, including an audio-only line without cameras, alongside lightweight Meta VR Glasses. Monness said Meta struggled for most of 2026 to show concrete evidence that its capital spending and Meta Superintelligence Labs pay packages were improving its AI position, and that Muse's early traction has shifted the narrative in its favor. The firm remains more measured than several peers: Canaccord raised its target to $950 on strong early Muse adoption, while Jefferies, TD Cowen and Piper Sandler sit between $865 and $875, and Oppenheimer holds a Perform rating, questioning how Meta will make money from Muse despite U.S. downloads of about 340,000 a day.

Meta used its Meta Connect event to unveil the Muse Charm, a standalone pocket device built exclusively for voice interaction with the company's new Muse agent, alongside a major push into what Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg called Personal Superintelligence. The Muse Charm debut came late Wednesday, and Meta also showed off the Meta VR Glasses, a 100-gram spatial computing headset priced at $1,299 with 5K micro-OLED displays, tethered puck processing, and native eye and hand tracking, plus the third-generation Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 glasses starting at an entry-level $249 and camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses for open-ear listening and AI voice interaction. Meta's Muse has amassed more than 3.4 million downloads since its Sept. 8 launch, according to new Sensor Tower data obtained by Yahoo Finance, including 2.8 million in its first two weeks, versus 3.7 million for OpenAI's ChatGPT, 400,000 for SpaceXAI's Grok, and 300,000 for Anthropic's Claude over the same 14 days post-launch. Meta stock has surged 14% in the past five days, even as it trades on a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 22 times, below its long-term average of 23.1 times, with 2027 EPS estimates still well below levels seen 90 days ago. Citi analyst Ronald Josey said the firm emerges from Meta Connect incrementally positive on Meta shares, calling Muse the centerpiece of Meta's AI product strategy as voice, additional distribution points through Meta Glasses, and services across shopping, travel, and productivity verticals could unlock incremental monetization opportunities.

SoftBank is set to roll out the new Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 in Japan on September 25, giving Meta Platforms another distribution channel for its AI-powered smart glasses. The Japanese carrier has been steadily expanding its smart-glasses business, becoming the country's first mobile network operator to sell Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 glasses in June and enlarging its Meta glasses assortment again in August. Alongside the Gen 3 launch, SoftBank will also add Meta Glasses by LISA to its lineup. The wider retail and carrier availability matters to Meta because smart glasses are a prominent piece of its push to extend artificial intelligence beyond smartphones and PCs, and could help it gauge whether AI-powered wearables can become a substantial consumer hardware category. Meta shares closed up 4.5% at $777.59 on Thursday, while SoftBank Group's U.S.-listed shares slumped 7.6%.

Dolby Laboratories Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. said Wednesday they are expanding Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision across Meta's ecosystem. Meta's new AI glasses will be the first global consumer device that can capture audio in Dolby Atmos, letting users record spatial audio and share it on Instagram, which already supports Dolby Vision. The rollout builds on Meta's introduction of Dolby Vision on Instagram last year, and Meta also said its upcoming VR device will support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos when it launches next year. The announcement came as Meta used Connect 2026 to unveil a $1,299 VR glasses device, expand its AI glasses lineup and bring its Muse personal AI agent to more products. The partnership expands Dolby's presence across Meta's social media, wearable and virtual reality platforms.

JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth sees Meta Platforms' eclectic new AI hardware lineup as part of a much larger AI platform that could address a market worth tens of trillions of dollars. Meta plans to offer more than 100 glasses across Ray-Ban, Oakley and Meta by year-end, targeting the more than 2 billion people who already wear glasses, and has shifted Reality Labs toward wearables designed around Muse and personal superintelligence. The lineup spans a hearing-enhancement feature in the U.S., the Muse Charm keychain device Zuckerberg called a "joyful little device" that is expected to ship in December, and Meta VR Glasses, described as a "private cinema" at roughly 100 grams and expected in spring 2027 for $1,299. Anmuth says Muse is already reaching millions of people and could eventually become a personal agent for billions, with JPMorgan expecting Meta to eventually monetize transactions between users, businesses and AI agents through fees or commissions. Direct Muse monetization remains limited today, and the bigger test for investors is whether Meta can turn the collection of products into a single AI ecosystem capable of expanding the company beyond advertising.

Meta has launched a secretive, keychain-sized AI device with a camera and microphone, shipping months ahead of OpenAI's rumored rival. The device, called the Muse Charm, was revealed a day after the meteoric rise of Meta's Muse, according to host Ejaaz Ahamadeen, who broke down the news from Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii. The announcement came alongside the biggest stories of the week from Meta Connect and beyond. No pricing, release date, or sales figures were disclosed.

Meta and Dolby Laboratories announced earlier this month that Meta AI glasses will capture audio in Dolby Atmos and that Dolby Vision experiences will expand across Instagram and Meta's next VR headset, deepening Dolby's role in social, AR, and VR media. The move extends Dolby's technologies beyond traditional cinema and home entertainment into everyday content creation and sharing, embedding its formats directly into one of the world's largest consumer ecosystems. The Meta deal sits alongside recent updates to Dolby OptiView, including the addition of Dolby Vision and AI powered Sports Intelligence, as part of a broader push beyond traditional cinema and home entertainment. Dolby Laboratories' narrative projects $1.6 billion revenue and $390.9 million earnings by 2029, requiring 6.4% yearly revenue growth and about a $164.7 million earnings increase from $226.2 million today, with a $79.00 fair value implying 36% upside to its current price. Some of the lowest analysts were already cautious, assuming revenue would only reach about US$1.6 billion and earnings US$396.8 million by 2029, leaving investors to weigh that more pessimistic view against the Meta-driven expansion story.

Qualcomm Incorporated has introduced the Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 Platform, a new solution for intelligent audio wearables that combines high-quality audio, on-device artificial intelligence and advanced connectivity. The platform is designed for earbuds, headphones, open-ear devices, audio glasses and camera-enabled wearables, and delivers up to twice the AI capability of its predecessor while cutting power consumption by up to 40% and footprint by up to 30%. It includes Qualcomm aptX Lossless, XPAN, fifth-generation Active Noise Cancellation, cVc technology and the Snapdragon Audio Sense Solution, plus integrated micro-power Wi-Fi 6E for direct-to-cloud connectivity. The multimodal capabilities can power real-time translation, contextual assistance and personalized hearing, while camera-enabled devices can gather context about the surrounding environment. Qualcomm faces competition from Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc., which have expanded their own wearable and AI audio lineups. Qualcomm shares have gained 16.2% over the past year compared with the industry's growth of 40.4%, and the stock carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

Meta's $14.3 billion deal to buy up the employees of AI startup Scale AI, including Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who received about $5 billion as part of the deal, appears to be paying off. Meta's new AI products developed under Wang's leadership have added roughly $200 billion in market value, and Meta has added about $234 billion to its market cap in the past five days. At Meta Connect, Zuckerberg unveiled the Muse Charm, a standalone pocket device built exclusively for voice interaction with the company's new Muse agent, along with the Meta VR Glasses, a 100-gram spatial computing device priced at $1,299 with 5K micro-OLED displays, and the third-generation Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 glasses starting at $249. Muse reached 2.8 million downloads in its first 12 days across the US and Canada App Stores, and surpassed OpenAI's ChatGPT in early adoption, with 1.8 million downloads in Muse's first 12 days compared to 1.3 million for ChatGPT. Muse also set a new US daily download record of 264,000 on Sept. 19, its third straight day above 200,000.

Meta has unveiled a new camera-free version of its smart glasses following concerns that the devices are being used to film women and girls without their consent. The audio-only Ray-Ban glasses, announced at the company's annual conference in California, will be available next month from a starting price of $349. The launch comes after critics dubbed the camera-equipped wearables "pervert" glasses, and private schools including Haberdashers' Boys' School in Hertfordshire banned pupils from wearing them, while pub chain JD Wetherspoon, English courts, theatres and restaurants have also prohibited the technology. Meta also announced dozens of new models that will retain the ability to take photos and film, and said the display version of its flagship Meta Ray-Ban glasses, priced from $799, will soon be available in new markets including Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Canada. Vishal Shah, head of AI products at Meta, said built-in privacy features including a recording indicator light were "really important", while chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said most of the nearly two billion people worldwide who wear glasses will upgrade to AI glasses in the coming years. Meta additionally announced a new personal AI assistant, Muse, accessible through a new handheld device, which Zuckerberg called the "centrepiece of our vision".

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is going all in on artificial intelligence and the company's new Muse app, a bet that former longtime CTO Mike Schroepfer describes as Zuckerberg being in founder mode. Schroepfer, who still advises Zuckerberg and remains in contact with people at the company, told Yahoo Finance's Power Players podcast that he would never bet against Meta, noting that opinions on the company flip faster than what is actually happening. Meta's Muse app is having a moment as a top downloaded app, and the company also unveiled a new line of smart glasses, including audio glasses without cameras and a keychain-sized device that packs the full Muse experience with real-time voice and avatar capabilities. Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi said the market is starting to read Meta's aggressive capital expenditures of the past year as finally coming to life, with monetization potentially arriving in a big way, though perhaps not this quarter. Sozzi also cited Mark Mahaney's comment that Muse over Metaverse is a good thing for Meta investors.

Meta used its Meta Connect keynote to unveil a new hardware lineup built around its Muse AI agent, led by the Muse Charm, a standalone pocket device made exclusively for voice interaction. The company also introduced the Meta VR Glasses, a $1,299 spatial computing headset weighing just 100 grams, roughly one-fifth the weight of Meta's Quest 3, with 5K micro-OLED displays, tethered puck processing, and native eye-and-hand tracking. On the smart eyewear side, Meta debuted the third-generation Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 glasses starting at an entry-level $249, joined by the camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses designed purely for open-ear listening and AI voice interaction. KeyBanc analyst Justin Patterson said the keynote showed progress across AI and connected devices and argued more investors will reconsider Meta's ability to participate in the hardware total addressable market, where glasses alone represent a 2 billion user opportunity. Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney called the announcements a strategic shift placing agentic AI, wearable computing, commerce integrations, and privacy infrastructure at the core of Meta's next computing platform, adding that Muse over Metaverse is a good thing for Meta investors. JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth said that while it is still early, Muse has the potential to become the most widely used consumer AI application since ChatGPT.

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.

EssilorLuxottica and Meta Platforms unveiled the next generation of AI glasses at Meta Connect, expanding their smart eyewear portfolio with a new audio line, a third generation of Ray-Ban Meta, and new models, features and markets. The companies introduced Ray-Ban Meta Audio, a camera-free line they describe as their lightest and slimmest yet at as low as 43 grams, launching in Clubmaster and Burbank styles. Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 arrives in a slimmer design with longer battery life and a customizable action button, offered in 27 color and lens combinations that include the Aviator, marking its 90th anniversary, along with the new Zena and the iconic Wayfarer in standard and large sizes. Meta Glasses with EssilorLuxottica add the Capri and Nova styles plus two models designed with the international icon LISA, and by the end of this year the companies will offer more than 100 different styles of AI glasses. Meta's new personal AI agent, Muse, will come to all of the companies' AI glasses in the US only, while Hearing Enhancement, an FDA-cleared software feature for adults with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss, arrives later this year via one-time payment or subscription. EssilorLuxottica is expanding the portfolio in the coming months into Poland, Portugal, Israel, South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Malaysia and the Philippines, and Meta Ray-Ban Display are now available online and expanding into five new markets, going on sale today in the UK and Canada with pre-orders progressively starting today in France, Italy and Germany through select retail locations in Vancouver, Toronto, London, Paris, Milan, Rome, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich.

Meta's new Muse AI agent has reached 2.8 million downloads in its first 12 days across the US and Canada app stores, according to Sensor Tower data, surpassing ChatGPT's 1.3 million downloads over the same early window. Muse also set a new US daily download record of 264,000 on Sept. 19, its third straight day above 200,000, and has surged to the top spot on Apple's App Store. Shares of Meta have rallied by some 20% over the past two weeks as Muse mania has taken hold across markets and social media. All eyes now turn to CEO Mark Zuckerberg at his annual Meta Connect event later today, where investors expect details on how Muse will be integrated into Meta's smart glasses and fresh download and usage data. Meta Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang has said usage is running well ahead of internal projections, framing Muse as the biggest consumer AI launch since ChatGPT. Separately, Gary Cohn, vice chair at IBM and former economic adviser to President Trump, said on Yahoo Finance's Sozzi Unleashed that he is not comfortable giving up his personal data and is not yet ready to use Muse in his daily life.

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.

Meta Platforms is heading into Meta Connect 2026 on Sept. 23 and 24, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg expected to unveil new smart glasses, a VR headset and updates to the company's metaverse push. The event follows an 11% single-day surge in META stock, driven by strong reception of the new Muse AI assistant, which launched on Sept. 8 and racked up 730,000 downloads in roughly five days, overtaking ChatGPT as the top free iOS app in the United States. Meta expects capital expenditures of $130-$145 billion in 2026, with total expenses guided between $165 billion and $169 billion, while second-quarter revenue of $60.8 billion was almost entirely advertising at $59.36 billion and Reality Labs posted a $4.62 billion operating loss on just $431 million of revenue. In late August, the company agreed to pay roughly $17 billion to settle state lawsuits alleging it misrepresented the harm its apps could cause to children and teens, and Amazon has already blocked Muse from accessing its shopping site over privacy and security concerns. The Zacks Consensus Estimate implies 2026 sales and EPS growth of 26.4% and 34% respectively, though EPS estimates have declined over the past 60 days, and META carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Snap Inc. is pushing its $2,195 Specs augmented-reality glasses into the enterprise market through partnerships with Salesforce, Nvidia, and Amazon Web Services. Salesforce's Agentforce will bring AI agents to the glasses, Nvidia technology will support visual recognition, and AWS will provide voice-assistant capabilities, while Snap also introduced Specs Intelligence, its own AI service for the device. Specs are expected to begin shipping in the U.S., UK, and France this fall, with a $2,395 package that includes a cellular-enabled charging case. CEO Evan Spiegel said in June that Snap had already invested more than $3.5 billion in Specs, even as activist investor Irenic Capital pushed the company to divest the business or seek outside financing, and Snap previously reorganized Specs into a standalone subsidiary. The enterprise push comes as Snap reported second-quarter 2026 revenue rose 19% to $1.60 billion, with free cash flow of $121 million versus $24 million a year earlier and $2.7 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities at the end of June. Snap faces formidable competition, as Meta's newest smart glasses start at $299 and Meta accounted for roughly 76.1% of global smart-glasses sales last year, while Apple and Google are also developing competing devices, according to Reuters.

Amazon is expanding its AI-powered smart glasses for delivery drivers deeper into its last-mile logistics network, following a trial in which more than 500 delivery associates completed over 275,000 deliveries using the system over the past 18 months. The company plans to deploy another 5,000 devices this year and have more than 20,000 in use by the end of 2027, turning the small trial into a much broader operational rollout. The glasses use artificial intelligence, computer vision and cameras to guide drivers from their vehicles to delivery locations, identify hazards and confirm packages reach the correct address, displaying which packages are needed for a stop before providing walking directions. Amazon's geospatial technology is designed to help in complicated environments such as apartment buildings, and the devices can warn drivers about potential pets, flag packages left at the wrong address and capture proof of delivery. Use of the glasses remains voluntary for Amazon's delivery-service partners and their drivers.

Meta shares jumped more than 10% intraday after Wells Fargo raised its price target on the stock from $640 to $796. The rally was also fueled by Meta's Muse AI agent app climbing to the top spot among free apps on Apple's App Store, signaling growing momentum around the company's AI push. Bloomberg reported that Amazon has blocked Muse from accessing its site, preventing the agent from making purchases there. Meta has revamped its AI approach, hiring Alexander Wang from Scale AI to head its Meta Super Intelligence Lab as chief AI officer, after delaying its Llama 4 Behemoth model last year. Meta Connect kicks off Wednesday the 23rd, with Mark Zuckerberg hosting a keynote at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time, where the company is expected to detail new wearables and AI capabilities.

TruVideo announced it is now compatible with AI glasses from Meta, letting automotive and trucking service technicians start and stop service and inspection video recording entirely by hands-free voice command. The company said the integration drops transcription from Meta's AI glasses into the dealership DMS platforms and workflows teams already use, so there is nothing new to learn. Co-Founder and CTO Douglas Chrystall said TruVideo has worked closely with the Meta AI glasses team for the past few months, building the technology to fit how dealerships actually run because it was not ready out of the box for automotive technician and sales workflows. Support on the AI glasses is available now to select TruVideo customers, and the company plans to follow the voice-based launch with an intelligent voice assistant that understands each vehicle's service history and guides technicians step by step. TruVideo says nearly 10,000 automotive dealerships and trucking service centers use its platform.

President Trump will host Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week for their second meeting of 2026, with a state dinner on Thursday set to include OpenAI's Sam Altman and Nvidia's Jensen Huang among confirmed AI attendees. Markets are watching for a continuation of the two countries' trade truce ahead of its November expiration, though touchy subjects like Taiwan and the war with Iran could complicate talks. Meta kicks off its Connect conference on Wednesday, where it is expected to unveil a new version of its glasses, fresh off Snap's foray into the space, and Reuters reports the new wearable may be camera-free. Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit begins Tuesday in Hawaii, putting the infrastructure side of the AI supply chain in focus. On the earnings front, Costco Wholesale Corporation and Darden Restaurants report Thursday, while KB Home reports Tuesday as mortgage rates surge again. Wall Street will also parse a busy FedSpeak schedule, with New York Fed president John Williams the highlight, alongside Barr, Jefferson, Goolsbee, Barkin, Paulson, and Hammack.

Snap introduced its SPECS Intelligence AI service alongside expanded real-world trials of its SPECS AR glasses in September 2026. The launch includes enterprise-focused deployments with partners such as Salesforce, Amazon Web Services and NVIDIA targeting industrial, retail and field use cases. Snap is highlighting a privacy-first architecture for SPECS Intelligence AI, limiting data usage for AI training and personalized advertising. The SPECS Intelligence AI rollout and broader AR glasses push are part of a wider shift in how Snap structures its consumer and enterprise ecosystem, extending its technology into real-world use cases across North America, Europe and other regions. The company's AR narrative hinges on whether an expanding AR ecosystem and new services can turn a social app reliant on ads into a broader computing platform with higher-margin revenue.