Why did AI glasses sell like hotcakes during this year's Double 11 shopping festival?
When shopping, you can instantly see the online price of a piece of clothing you're interested in; you can make payments just by "looking" without using your phone; during your fitness regime, you can know exactly how many calories you'll consume when you see delicious food... With the help of AI glasses, such scenarios are becoming a reality. Even before many people fully realize the profound changes that might be brought about, smart glasses have already witnessed a new wave of consumer enthusiasm.
Tmall's sales data shows that during this year's Double 11, the turnover of the smart glasses category on the platform skyrocketed by 2,500% year-on-year. Among them, smart glasses products from multiple brands all achieved varying degrees of growth. The turnover of Rokid's related products increased by more than seven times year-on-year, and that of Thunderbird Innovation increased by more than 80%.
Coincidentally, on November 11th, JD.com released a battle report on its 3C digital product category, stating that the turnover of smart glasses on the platform soared by 346% year-on-year, making it the fastest-growing category among 3C digital products.
This consumption trend continues the overall booming momentum of the smart glasses market since the beginning of this year. Recently, the report data released by IDC showed that in the first half of 2025, the global smart glasses market shipped 4.065 million units, a year-on-year increase of 64.2%. Among them, the Chinese market has remarkable consumption potential. IDC predicts that by 2029, the global smart glasses market shipments will exceed 40 million units, and the market share of the Chinese market will steadily increase. It is estimated that the compound annual growth rate from 2024 to 2029 will reach 55.6%, ranking first globally in terms of growth rate.
It's true that currently, most consumers of smart glasses are paying for the novel experience of technological innovation. However, looking at the players behind the scenes, the entry of big manufacturers and the optimism of capital point to the potential revolutionary breakthroughs that smart glasses may bring. With the continuous improvement of AI technology and the continuous expansion of application scenarios, AI glasses have become the next-generation human-computer interaction interface that is highly anticipated.
Smart glasses sell better after integrating with large AI models
This wave of consumer enthusiasm was not without warning. During the Double 11 period, there was a concentrated launch of new products in the smart glasses market.
For example, Quark, under Alibaba, started the pre-sale of its first AI glasses, the S1, on October 24th. According to the product page information on Tmall, the main labels of the Quark S1 are "portable super AI assistant" and "brand-new shooting gadget". It integrates multiple products from the same ecosystem, such as Gaode Map and Alipay. Tmall data shows that after the pre-sale started, this product quickly topped the Double 11 best-selling list of XR devices. The second place went to the new products in the Rokid series from Lingban Technology, whose product highlights also include support for multi-modal AI interactions such as translation, object recognition, teleprompter, and navigation. This consumption performance reflects the new demand trend for smart glasses.
It should be noted that before the global popularity of general large models represented by ChatGPT, smart glasses were mostly consumer-grade AR glasses. Such products focus more on entertainment functions and belong to portable and lightweight XR head-mounted devices. Even now, AR glasses remain an important branch of smart glasses.
For example, the XReal One series under XREAL focuses on improving the picture performance, seeking technological breakthroughs in aspects such as spatial hovering, anti-shake, clarity, and refresh rate. Thunderbird Innovation under TCL also has such products. Its new product, the Thunderbird Air 4 Pro, directly promotes itself as a "wearable TV" on the product details page. The application scenarios of these products are mainly for immersive spatial experiences such as gaming and movie-watching.
After the emergence of general large models, smart glasses began to integrate with large AI models, expanding their application scenarios from practical functions, which is what we now call the popular AI glasses. In fact, the first global sales breakthrough of smart glasses was achieved after integrating with large AI models.
Going back to the second half of 2023, Meta and Ray-Ban jointly launched the second-generation smart glasses. Initially, the product only had basic functions such as taking photos, listening to music, and making calls. After an update in April 2024, it started to integrate with Meta's self-developed Llama 3 large model and later further adapted to Llama 4. The functions of Ray-Ban Meta gradually expanded to real-time conversations and AI object recognition. Correspondingly, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, by the end of 2024, the sales of Ray-Ban Meta exceeded one million pairs. Later, Essilor Luxottica, the parent company of Ray-Ban, disclosed in its financial report that in the first half of 2025, the sales revenue of the Ray-Ban Meta series of AI glasses increased by more than 200% year-on-year.
Notably, the market reaction triggered by Ray-Ban Meta also made the domestic market aware of the potential of AI glasses as the next-generation human-computer interaction interface.
In June this year, Xiaomi launched its first AI glasses at the "Smart Mobility, Home, and Ecosystem Launch Event". In terms of design, function, and positioning, this product directly competes with Ray-Ban Meta. It not only comes with Xiaomi's own Xiaoai classmate but also integrates with SenseTime's "Rixin" large model. The sales data at that time showed that the product was sold out online within just half an hour of its release.
Less than half a year has passed, and the new generation of AI glasses launched by more domestic manufacturers now support a wider range of application scenarios, including payment, navigation, and e-commerce. From the sales performance during Double 11, the practical functions enabled by large AI models are gradually becoming an important driving force for the growth of smart glasses sales.
Capital is betting big; concept stocks have soared by up to 657% this year
Apparently, based on the current development trend, AI glasses have gradually become the mainstream in the smart glasses market. According to IDC's prediction, in 2025, the shipments of the Chinese smart glasses market will reach 2.846 million units. Among them, the shipments of AI glasses (audio and audio-camera glasses) are expected to reach 2.202 million units, a year-on-year increase of 183.2%. Both the estimated shipment volume and growth rate are much higher than those of AR glasses (AR/VR devices).
The reason for this trend is twofold. On the one hand, it is driven by market demand. On the other hand, the potential of AI glasses has opened up new development directions for large model manufacturers eager to find real-world applications for their technologies. It is well-known in the industry that in the process of the rapid development of AI technology, AI will become the core of operating systems in the future. Especially after the emergence of general large models, almost all technology giants and internet companies are developing their own large AI models.
However, the current situation is that there are too many players chasing too few opportunities. Technological breakthroughs need to find real-world application scenarios to achieve commercial success. In the domestic market, although mobile intelligent terminals are compatible with AI application scenarios and connect to the mass market, mainstream hardware manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi are also actively deploying their own large model products during this technological boom. It is difficult for third-party large model manufacturers to obtain long-term system permissions. Therefore, AI glasses have become a new breakthrough point, quickly attracting more major players.
A typical example is Alibaba. Although Alibaba Cloud and Tongyi large model under Alibaba are technologically advanced in the field of AI infrastructure, Alibaba has long lacked a significant consumer-facing product.
One day before the pre-sale of the Quark AI glasses S1, the platform officially launched an AI chat assistant. Based on the latest closed-source model of Tongyi Qianwen, the updated Quark APP integrates many functions such as in-depth search, photo recognition, AI writing, and translation, making it even more "Doubao-like". These functions are highly consistent with the current exploration direction of AI glasses. The Quark Smart Glasses S1 also uses the latest closed-source model. These moves by Quark are generally regarded by the industry as Alibaba's attempt to enter the consumer market with AI. Before this, Alibaba clearly positioned the Quark ecosystem as the "flagship AI application of Alibaba", and the Quark Smart Glasses A1 is Alibaba's first smart hardware product targeting consumers.
Similarly, Baidu also launched the Xiaodu AI Glasses Pro during this year's Double 11 and jointly released the Dapeng AI Glasses with Le Xiang Technology. The latter integrates with Baidu's Qianfan large model and is supported by Baidu's computing power. There were also rumors that Tencent was planning to develop AI glasses. Although no product has been launched yet, INMO AIR3, the flagship product of INMO Technology, is a joint effort between INMO Technology and Tencent Appbao.
With the concentrated efforts of big manufacturers, the smart glasses market has also attracted a new round of capital investment.
In the stock market, the concept stocks of AI wearable devices such as Shikong Technology, Dongshan Precision, and Changying Precision have all soared by more than 100% this year. Among them, Shikong Technology, which has been in the red for four consecutive years, announced in October this year that it plans to acquire 100% of the equity of Shenzhen Jiahe Jinwei Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. through the issuance of shares and cash payment. This target company is well-known and recognized in the domestic storage field. As the core of the computing system, DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) plays an indispensable role in the AI era. Driven by this news, Shikong Technology's stock price soared by the daily limit for six consecutive trading days after resuming trading, reaching a maximum increase of 656.85% this year.
In terms of financing, according to incomplete statistics, since 2025, smart glasses-related companies have completed more than 20 rounds of financing. Among them, Thunderbird Innovation completed four rounds of financing within a year, and the financing amounts of XREAL and INMO Technology reached 200 million yuan and 150 million yuan respectively this year.
Technology integration and improved comfort are the main directions for current development
However, judging from the specific financing situation, manufacturers focusing on AR glasses research and development are currently more favored by capital. Thunderbird Innovation and XREAL are representatives of such companies. The reason is that the development of AI glasses is relatively later, and most of them are directly deployed by big manufacturers. In addition, looking at the current development trend of smart glasses products, the integration of AI and AR is an inevitable trend. Driven by technology, smart glasses are likely to gradually combine practicality and entertainment.
In October this year, Li Hongwei, the CEO of Thunderbird Innovation, mentioned in a podcast conversation with technology blogger Wang Ziru that the company's new round of financing was about 800 million yuan. Subsequently, Thunderbird Innovation completed its C+ round of financing in November. Although the specific amount was not disclosed, the company said that this round of financing set a new record for the single largest financing amount in the domestic AI+AR glasses field in 2025, and the funds will be used to accelerate the technological research and development and ecosystem construction of AI+AR glasses.
In terms of product performance, the Thunderbird X3 Pro, a new product in the X series previously launched by Thunderbird Innovation, combines advanced imaging technology with intelligent interaction capabilities. It integrates with the Tongyi AI large model and can perform human-computer interactions such as payment and translation. The smart glasses launched by Quark and Baidu are also positioned in the AI+AR direction, and similar products are on the rise. In February this year, XREAL, known for its AR glasses, announced that it would cooperate with Hisense Visual Technology in fields such as optical display and large AI model applications.
During this process, although smart glasses are developing rapidly, there is a phenomenon where technology outpaces user experience. The reason is that for consumers, whether it's sunglasses or optical glasses for vision correction, the basic requirement is to be comfortable to wear daily. When technology companies develop smart glasses, although they offer different prescriptions and glasses-fitting services, they mainly focus on improving the clarity of virtual imaging and reducing interaction latency. As a result, many smart glasses have issues such as tightness on the head, double vision, and discomfort during long-term wear, as reflected in customer feedback. In addition, practical problems such as short battery life and lack of waterproofing also need to be further addressed.
In response, the industry is actively seeking solutions, and the most direct approach is to cooperate with traditional glasses manufacturers. In July this year, after a long-term cooperation with Ray-Ban, Meta decided to acquire a 3%