Google Restarts AI Glass Project: Manufactured by Foxconn, Designed by Samsung, May Be Released in Q4 2026 | Exclusive Report from Intelligence Emergence

Text by | Qiu Xiaofen

Edited by | Su Jianxun

According to "Intelligent Emergence", Google initiated two AI glasses projects at the end of last year. Currently, both projects have entered the POC (small-scale trial production) stage and are intensively advancing the selection and ID design.

People familiar with the matter said that Foxconn is the hardware OEM for Google's AI glasses, Samsung provides the reference design, and Qualcomm supplies the chips. Google has also been in contact with Chinese suppliers including Goertek recently.

In addition, the earliest release time for Google's AI glasses may be Q4 2026.

It's worth noting that although Google launched the AR glasses Project Aura, a collaboration with Chinese AR glasses brand Xreal for developers, at the I/O Conference in May this year, the aforementioned person said that the two new AI glasses projects are not related to Project Aura and are parallel projects.

In terms of product definition, Google's AI glasses will most likely adopt an optical solution with waveguide lenses and be equipped with a camera.

"Intelligent Emergence" learned that one of the leaders of Google's AI glasses project is Michael Klug, the platform engineering leader at Google Labs. He was once a core member of the star startup Magic Leap and holds multiple patents in fields such as light field display.

(Author's note: A former unicorn company in the AR field, valued at up to $6 billion, and one of its masterpieces is "a whale leaping out of a stadium".)

Google is a pioneer in the smart glasses industry. In 2012, Google co-founder Sergey Brin amazed the world with a skydiving live broadcast demonstration, introducing Google Glass to the world. Since then, it has also sparked the industry's imagination of wearable devices and the concept of "augmented reality".

△Project Aura

However, soon after, due to privacy issues related to taking photos in public, the controversial Google Glass was discontinued in 2015.

Not until after 2017 did Google, not willing to give up, resume its exploration in the field of glasses. However, its strategy became more cautious. The product concept shifted from the once flashy concept machines to tools that solve practical problems, and the commercialization direction also changed from consumer-grade to B2B, targeting fields such as logistics, medical training, and remote equipment maintenance.

Now, in the field of AI glasses, although Google lags behind Meta Ray-ban, it never fights an unprepared battle. Before launching the new AI glasses project, Google has been accelerating the improvement of the infrastructure for AI glasses.

For example, as early as 2023, Google allied with Samsung and Qualcomm to launch the operating system Android XR specifically for XR devices. To improve the content ecosystem, this operating system is directly connected to Google's Play Store, leveraging Google's vast application advantages.

In terms of AI capabilities, Google already has the most advanced Gemini AI model, which integrates natural language understanding, multimodal reasoning, knowledge base, and generative capabilities.

After 2023, Google has continuously taken actions to integrate Gemini into its mobile phone hardware, the Pixel. In the future, the powerful Gemini will be one of the core competitiveness of Google's AI glasses.

In addition, at last year's I/O Conference, Google also showcased the AI agent Project Astra, which integrates the capabilities of the Gemini model. This agent offers visual reasoning, memory, and conversational experiences. At that time, Google demonstrated its functions on a pair of smart glasses.

Therefore, for the many big players in the market eyeing the AI glasses field, Google's actions are worthy of attention. It is an all-round player without obvious weaknesses, possessing a content ecosystem, an operating system, the crucial large AI model foundation, and an intelligent agent. More importantly, Google has more extensive experience in exploring the glasses industry than other players.

The field of AI glasses welcomes one of the most powerful competitors in history.

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