China Mobile and China Unicom are betting on the next-generation "mobile phones".

In 2025, there was an explosion in the application of AI. Smart glasses, regarded as "one of the best carriers for the implementation of large AI models," are undoubtedly one of the most "bustling" tracks in the technology industry.

From Meta driving the rapid sales growth of Ray-Ban Meta to the sudden intensification of the "battle of a hundred glasses" in China, from startups to internet giants and mobile phone manufacturers, almost everyone is talking about AI/AR glasses. The rapid influx of capital has pushed this once-silent industry to the forefront.

However, behind the "battle of a hundred glasses," there are not many products that can achieve continuous shipments and user retention. Shipments, channel capabilities, and technological accumulation are becoming the dividing lines, and capital and resources are concentrating on a few leading companies.

At this juncture, on the second working day of the beginning of 2026, Thunderbird Innovation, a leading AR glasses manufacturer, announced the completion of a new round of financing exceeding 1 billion yuan, jointly invested by funds under China Mobile and China Unicom.

This is also the first time that China's mainstream operators have jointly invested in the smart glasses track.

"In the past year, there have been significantly more investors pouring into the smart glasses industry," Li Hongwei, the founder and CEO of Thunderbird Innovation, revealed in an exclusive interview with Wall Street News recently. He said that this round of financing for Thunderbird Innovation far exceeded expectations, reaching two to three times the original plan.

Meanwhile, he pointed out that although investors are currently enthusiastic, funds are still flowing towards the leading companies.

Counterpoint data shows that Thunderbird Innovation held a 24% global market share in Q3 of 2025, ranking first in the global AR smart glasses market for two consecutive quarters.

In addition, according to Wall Street News, Thunderbird Innovation's overseas revenue accounted for over 30% last year, and it is expected to exceed 50% in 2026. Globalization is an important strategy for Thunderbird Innovation's development, and North America, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia are all key markets for its current and future layout.

Regarding the reason why China's mainstream operators chose to jointly bet on the smart glasses track at this time, Li Hongwei believes that the development situation of the smart glasses industry is now very clear. Everyone can see that this industry is growing rapidly and the products are maturing quickly. "The operators believe that the industry has reached an inflection point of explosion."

From the perspective of the operators' own development, investing in Thunderbird Innovation is mainly based on two considerations. First, it is a strategic judgment. In his view, the operators are aiming to layout the track of the "next-generation mobile phone." Second, they believe that it is now a good time to cooperate with smart glasses manufacturers.

It is worth mentioning that along with the cash investment from the funds under China Mobile and China Unicom, it will also bring important breakthroughs to Thunderbird Innovation in terms of products and channels. During CES 2026, Thunderbird Innovation will showcase its first eSIM AR glasses, which adopt a binocular full-color display solution and are equipped with an eSIM module.

"Since smart glasses are the next-generation mobile phones, they need to be relatively independent," Li Hongwei pointed out. "Whether it's color MicroLED or eSIM, it can be seen that only Thunderbird is truly working on the 'next-generation mobile phone'."

The business cooperation between Thunderbird Innovation and China Mobile and China Unicom is systematic. On the one hand, they will collaborate on product development. In addition to eSIM, for example, the operators can also assist Thunderbird in laying out edge computing power, which can make up for the shortcomings of smart glasses in terms of computing power and latency. On the other hand, the operators' large user base and channel capabilities also provide a practical path for the large-scale production of Thunderbird Innovation's products.

"More than a decade ago, the operators promoted the rapid popularization of smartphones by offering mobile phones when customers topped up their phone bills. The popularization speed was quite fast," Li Hongwei believes. "Thunderbird Innovation will also cooperate with the operators to offer glasses when customers top up their phone bills. Once this model matures, it may become an important inflection point for the industry's popularization."

Undoubtedly, capital's bet on smart glasses is a competition for the "next-generation mobile terminal" and the "AI super entrance." The future development potential of smart glasses has reached a consensus in the industry. The controversy lies in when and who can make smart glasses enter every household.

"I don't quite agree with the view that 2025 is the year of explosion or the year of breaking the situation for smart glasses," Li Hongwei believes. "In the past year, there has been no fundamental breakthrough in the product power of smart glasses. The biggest feature is that the industry is very lively, and more people have seen the opportunities in this market, but there has been relatively little attention paid to the experience standards."

Li Hongwei said that 2026 is the real starting year for smart glasses, and 2027 and 2028 will be the "iPhone moments." There is a difference. In 2026, the products will be able to meet the user experience standards, and in 2027 and 2028, they will truly reach the state of the first-generation iPhone.

This judgment contrasts with the optimistic sentiment in the market. In the past year, smart glasses have frequently taken the spotlight, and some of their functions have become popular, significantly increasing the industry's attention. Many people believe that 2025 is the "starting year" or the "year of breaking the situation" for smart glasses.

Obviously, in Li Hongwei's view, popularity does not equal maturity. Many smart glasses products are more like a combination of functions, and there is still a significant gap before ordinary users are willing to wear them all day and use them for a long time. This also explains why many products gain attention in the short term but struggle to form long-term competitiveness.

Li Hongwei divides the future development of the smart glasses industry into three stages. The first stage is from now until before the "iPhone moment." There will be many players, and the core issue is who can truly create the next-generation iPhone. The second stage is the process from the iPhone to the iPhone 4, which is a process from the revolutionary definition of a product to its becoming a mass product. The third stage is from the iPhone 4 moment to the final showdown, where the surviving players will engage in all-round competition in various dimensions.

On the eve of the industry's explosion, all players must go all out to be the first to create the "iPhone." Li Hongwei pointed out that the core logic at this stage is to see who has the determination to create the next-generation iPhone and has sufficient resources, including money and talent, to make themselves run fast enough.

According to Wall Street News, the latest round of cash financing for Thunderbird Innovation has exceeded 1 billion yuan. Li Hongwei revealed that the most important use of these funds is for research and development, aiming to make the products in 2026 meet the experience standards as soon as possible and expand its competitive advantages in key technical areas such as optical display, spatial computing, and AI.

"Many products were launched in the industry last year, but to be honest, almost no one's products have truly met the user experience standards," he said. "Whether users think the product is good after using it and whether they are willing to recommend it to people around them is the core standard for me to judge the maturity of a product."

However, Li Hongwei believes that whether it is for new technologies or past engineering investments, it is now the time to continuously work on these two aspects to meet the experience standards.

Regarding the products themselves, currently, the definitions of AR glasses and AI glasses in the outside world are not completely unified. There are often intersections or blurred areas in their technical routes, functional positioning, and market promotion. Some manufacturers regard AI glasses as a transitional form of AR glasses, and some manufacturers often define their products as "AR + AI" glasses.

Li Hongwei believes that the future smart glasses track will mainly be divided into the following product forms. The first is AI glasses without a display. This track is closer to the product logic of some large companies in the past. The main strategic value of such glasses is to collect data and enhance the existing AI ecosystem on mobile phones.

The second is AR glasses with a display, which can be further divided into two categories. One type is similar to ordinary glasses, with very few functions. The other type has more powerful functions but relatively higher weight and cost.

In terms of the technical path, Thunderbird has chosen a relatively "heavy" route: full-color MicroLED waveguide display, low-power system architecture, and in-depth integration of AI and spatial computing. This is a difficult but correct path, which Li Hongwei regards as the only way to the "next-generation terminal."

On the first working day of 2025, Thunderbird Innovation also dropped a bombshell in the smart glasses industry by announcing a strategic cooperation with Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba Cloud's Tongyi series of large models will provide exclusive customized full-set AI technology and product support for Thunderbird Innovation's AI glasses.

At that time, Li Hongwei revealed that the cooperation between Thunderbird Innovation and Alibaba would regard the exploration of a killer application as the most important thing, while the end-side large model would be ranked second or third.

Now, Li Hongwei said that creating a killer application will still be the most important thing for Thunderbird Innovation, and it is now in the stage of being ready to launch soon.

On the long and promising track of smart glasses, the excitement is just the beginning. The real dividing line may still lie ahead.

The following is the full text of the dialogue between Wall Street News and Li Hongwei (edited):

The smart glasses industry reaches an inflection point of explosion

Wall Street News: Why do you think the operators chose to invest in Thunderbird at this time? How do they judge the development of this industry?

Li Hongwei: First of all, it is a process of mutual attraction because everyone has reached the same conclusion about the industry's judgment. From the perspective of the operators as investors this time, they believe that the industry has reached an inflection point of explosion. Although the "iPhone moment" of this industry has not arrived yet, I think it will be around 2027 or 2028. However, the current situation of the industry is very clear. They can see that this industry is growing rapidly and the products are maturing quickly.

For the operators, there are mainly two considerations. The first is a strategic consideration, which is to figure out what the next-generation mobile phone will be. They want to layout the track of the next-generation mobile phone, which is more of a capital-level consideration. The second is a business cooperation consideration. From the perspective of business cooperation, it is about when the products will mature and when they can really start business cooperation. Since they are targeting the general public, and each operator serves hundreds of millions or even billions of users, they hope to provide users with good product experiences. These are the two core judgments, and they both believe that it is now the right time.

Wall Street News: Many people in the industry now say that this year is the year of explosion and the year of breaking the situation for smart glasses. Do you agree? What new characteristics has the industry's development shown in the past year?

Li Hongwei: To be honest, I don't quite agree with this view. I don't think 2025 is the starting year or the year of breaking the situation for AI glasses. When will it be? Maybe 2026, because the products can really exceed the user experience standards.

The change in 2025 is that many people think that a lot of people are working on this, but the important thing is whether there are real breakthroughs and what the underlying logic is. I think the logic behind many people getting involved is that more people have seen the opportunities in this market, but they haven't seen the essence of this market. Even when people talk about the starting year, they haven't seen this essence. If people really want to define a starting year, I think 2026 is it, and 2027 and 2028 will be the "iPhone moments." There is a difference.

Wall Street News: You just mentioned that "many people haven't seen the essence of this market." What exactly do you mean?

Li Hongwei: People mainly see the surface excitement rather than the underlying changes. Many people rarely discuss the issue of "experience standards," even within the industry. Many current products are just fun combinations of functions, but the real problem is whether you can make the products meet the experience standards.

Some people have become pessimistic and think that this direction is not worth pursuing. I think they also haven't seen the essence. They don't realize that the experience standards will change in 2026.

Wall Street News: From the perspective of the industry's development, how do you judge the evolution of the future competitive landscape?

Li Hongwei: I divide the industry into three stages.

The first stage is from now until before the "iPhone moment." All kinds of players will enter the market, and the core is whether you can really create the next-generation iPhone.

The second stage is from the "iPhone moment" to the "iPhone 4 moment." Large companies will officially enter the market, and the core is still product leadership. What does "officially enter the market" mean? For example, does Xiaomi count as officially entering? I don't think so. Based on the products Xiaomi has produced, I don't think it has truly entered. They haven't committed their main forces and core resources to this. If they had, the results should be better than what they are now.

The third stage is for the remaining players to engage in a fierce all-round competition in various dimensions.

The core logic of the first stage is to see who has the determination to create the next-generation iPhone and has sufficient resources, including money and talent, to run fast enough to make it happen.

Why did the operators choose Thunderbird?

Wall Street News: What do you think is the core competitiveness of Thunderbird that the operators value the most?

Li Hongwei: From a strategic perspective, they are looking at who will ultimately succeed in this track, and they believe that Thunderbird has the highest probability of success. From a product perspective, they are optimistic about the fact that Thunderbird currently offers the best products on the market.

For the operators, Thunderbird's products have several characteristics that indicate they are good. First, we have a large user base. According to the latest Q3 data from Counterpoint, in the global AR glasses market, we rank first, accounting for 24% of the market share. That means for every four AR glasses sold globally, one is from Thunderbird. A large user base means that the product has been tested. Second, the product experience standards are relatively high, and users' feedback is generally good. Third, Thunderbird's products are in a suitable price range. For them, just like they used to offer mobile phones when customers topped up their phone bills, now they want to offer glasses. The glasses need to be in a suitable price range. Offering glasses when customers top up their phone bills could be the beginning of an inflection point. So these are the aspects related to the products.

As for how they judge that Thunderbird is the company with the best chance of success in this track, I think there are several aspects. First, compared with other companies and the entire industry, I think Thunderbird's most important advantage is its leading product technology accumulation. As a new product category, it always needs to provide users with valuable products, which requires product and technology leadership. They have seen this, especially the leadership in the correct direction. Currently, globally, only Meta and Thunderbird are truly working on the next-generation mobile phone, which is to develop all-in-one full-color display AR glasses.

Another point is that they can only invest in startups, and among the startups, Thunderbird is becoming increasingly dominant due to the Matthew effect. For example, from the perspective of financing, we can see that the funds are concentrating on the most promising leading companies, and they have also noticed this. Of course, behind this are a series of factors such as the team and strategy.

Wall Street News: In addition to providing financial support, what other support can China Mobile and China Unicom bring to Thunderbird or what kind of cooperation can they carry out?

Li Hongwei: There will be systematic business cooperation, mainly in two aspects. First, we will collaborate on product development. For example, we plan to add an eSIM card to Thunderbird's glasses. In the past, the glasses needed to be paired with a mobile phone, and the experience was not very good. You had to pair it with the phone via Bluetooth. From a strategic perspective, this method would always rely on the mobile phone. But we know that glasses are the next-generation mobile phones, so they need to be relatively independent. That's why I said that only Thunderbird is truly working on the next-generation mobile phone, whether it's color MicroLED or eSIM.

In addition to eSIM, there are many other forms of cooperation. For example, AI is very important now. Based on our cooperation with the operators, we are not only focusing on the cloud but also on the edge side. The operators have deployed a lot of AI computing power in their base stations, which can make the AI on the glasses faster. If it's only on the cloud, there will be network latency. For example, when users take photos or videos, we can store them in the cloud album, which involves a lot of business cooperation with the operators. So this is the first aspect, related to product development.

The second aspect is product promotion to users