Capital is rushing to make investments and major tech giants are placing heavy bets, is Huaqiangbei, whose AI glasses are priced at only 50 yuan, the biggest winner in the AI glasses market?
After competing to publicly claim the top market share, smart glasses enterprises have launched a wave of simultaneous new product announcements.
Rokid, Thunderbird, and INMO have successively released new products. On October 27, Rokid launched a number of products including the new-generation AI glasses Rokid Glasses 2, full-color AI glasses Rokid Color, and interactive ring Rokid Ring. Thunderbird also announced on the same day that it will soon release its fourth-generation full-color AI glasses.
Zhu Mingming, founder and CEO of Rokid, even claimed that "the 'original iPhone moment' for AI glasses has arrived."
Whether the "iPhone moment" of AI glasses has truly arrived remains to be discussed. However, in the 2026 consumer electronics market, AI smart glasses are undoubtedly one of the most booming tracks. Foreign brand Meta has raised its 2026 production capacity target for smart glasses to 20 million units. Domestic "AR Four Dragons" including Thunderbird Innovation, XREAL, Rokid, and INMO Technology have successively obtained financing of hundreds of millions to billions of yuan. XREAL has taken the lead in submitting its Hong Kong stock prospectus to sprint for the first smart glasses stock, and Yiwen Technology has grown into a unicorn with a valuation of over 1 billion U.S. dollars only three years after its establishment.
With major manufacturers betting heavily and capital rushing to invest, behind the hot market, is AI glasses the next-generation entry after smartphones, or just another short-lived hardware hype?
Major manufacturers and capital increase layout in AI glasses
Capital is still frantically increasing investment in AI glasses.
Some people call 2026 the "first year of AI glasses financing". According to incomplete statistics from RUNTO: in the first half of 2026, there were at least 64 financing, merger and acquisition, and strategic investment events in the global smart glasses industry chain, with a total disclosed amount of about 90 billion yuan. In comparison, there were about 36 global financing events in the smart glasses track for the whole of last year, with an estimated total amount of about 43.67 billion yuan, and domestic industry chain enterprises obtained more than 20 rounds of financing.
In 2026, the single-round financing amount in the smart glasses track has risen to 1 billion yuan.
Three companies have entered the 1-billion-yuan financing club. The latest financing round belongs to Thunderbird. In October, Thunderbird Innovation quietly completed its D++ round of financing. The amount of this round has not been disclosed, and investors include Rongyi Investment, China Unicom Venture Capital, Yanchuang Capital, Xiangjiang Zhijing, Changfei Fund, GF Xinde, and Inno Angel Fund.
Data from Tianyancha shows that in the 10 months from the beginning of 2026 to now, Thunderbird has completed three rounds of financing, and the amount of its D round of financing in January exceeded 1 billion yuan. This smart glasses company founded in 2021 has completed 11 rounds of financing in 5 years, with nearly 20 investment institutions behind it.
Back in September, INMO Technology announced the completion of a C+ round of financing of nearly 1 billion yuan, and in July, Yiwen Technology obtained 150 million U.S. dollars in Pre-B round financing.
All these companies have the shadow of large Internet manufacturers behind them: investors of Yiwen Technology include Meituan and Tencent; Alibaba, Kuaishou, and iQiyi have invested in XREAL; Bilibili has invested in Thunderbird; Momo Technology is one of the investors of INMO Technology. The founder of Rokid has a deep connection with Alibaba and was previously a senior executive at Alibaba.
Among all major manufacturers, Alibaba has the largest investment. It not only independently develops Kuark smart glasses and Qianwen smart glasses, but also completes its matrix layout by investing in XREAL and cooperating with Rokid. Austin, a former industrial investor, told Tech Planet that there has long been a rumor in the industry that Alibaba is adopting a multi-line development strategy for smart glasses, and through various methods, it focuses on laying out multiple directions such as AI assistants, enterprise office, and life entertainment respectively.
It is worth mentioning that among the domestic "AR Four Dragons", although XREAL's latest financing round this year was in January, it has the strongest financing capability, followed by Rokid. Tianyancha shows that since its establishment in 2017, XREAL has completed a total of 12 rounds of financing, with a total financing amount of about 60 billion yuan. Its investors include a star-studded lineup of well-known investment institutions such as HSG, GL Ventures, Shunwei Capital, and China Growth Capital. Rokid has the largest number of financing rounds. Since its establishment in 2014, it has completed a total of 18 rounds of financing, with a cumulative financing amount of over 3.5 billion yuan. In just 5 months in the first half of this year, it completed 5 rounds of financing, with nearly 30 investment institutions behind it.
Capital is almost betting on multiple lines at the same time: HSG and China Growth Capital have invested in both XREAL and Yiwen Technology, while 37 Interactive Entertainment has invested in both Thunderbird and INMO. Investment institutions, large Internet manufacturers, mobile phone hardware companies, cultural and entertainment game companies, eyewear brands, as well as new energy vehicle brands including NIO and Li Auto, are all pouring into the smart glasses track.
Austin recalled that the smart glasses track set off an investment boom around 2021. At that time, the main trend or hype in the industry was the metaverse, and everyone was betting on the future of the metaverse. In the past two years, the metaverse concept has cooled down, and everyone has turned to the AI narrative. At present, the market pattern is mainly dominated by vertical manufacturers such as Rokid and XREAL. Major manufacturers are mostly in the exploration stage of repeated trials, with low actual market share. Some major manufacturers have increased their investment again under the stimulation of the motivation to bet on the new AI entry, but the overall investment is still relatively conservative, and they rely more on external ecological cooperation. In terms of business models, the ToB market was and still is an important source of revenue for various manufacturers.
"Huaqiangbei has the largest shipment volume of domestic smart glasses"
Mobile phone interaction has reached a bottleneck. As a wearable device closest to the human eye, glasses naturally have the ability of first-person perception, and are one of the best hardware carriers for the implementation of AI intelligent agents, which is the next-generation human-computer interaction entry that all players do not want to miss.
In the battle for seizing the next-generation entry, all players are competing in technology, products, and application scenarios. When introducing the product functions of its new-generation AI glasses Rokid Glasses 2 and full-color AI glasses Rokid Color, Rokid claimed that in addition to basic functions such as photo taking, translation, and navigation, it has realized function upgrades in scenarios such as picking up takeout and AI office.
But there is nothing new under the sun for AI glasses. Austin said that in the early stage of the industry, there were disputes over routes such as all-in-one vs. split design and optical waveguide solutions. After five or six years of development, the industry has not produced disruptive new stories today. It is essentially a process of gradual convergence, and all manufacturers focus more on exploring product functions and usage scenarios. Now enterprises are forced to promote the AI concept, but it is difficult to tell new stories. Consumers' core demands for smart glasses are still concentrated on classic functions such as photo taking, navigation, audio playing, and translation. The actual empowerment effect of AI technology is limited, and it is difficult to form a strong selling point.
Behind the manufacturers' one-sided emphasis on market share, the actual sales volume is not optimistic. Four companies including Xiaomi, Thunderbird, Rokid, and XREAL have all publicly claimed that they rank first in shipment volume and first in the industry. Zhu Mingming, founder of Rokid, emphasized again at the press conference a few days ago that his company ranks first in the industry: from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026, it ranks first among AI smart glasses brands (32% sales share) and first among AI display smart glasses brands (54% sales share).
However, no matter who ranks first in market share, an unavoidable reality is that the sales volume is very limited. IDC data shows that global smartphone shipments reached 1.26 billion units in 2025, and domestic smartphone shipments were about 285 million units. In comparison, the sales volume of smart glasses is less than a fraction of that of mobile phones. Data from CCTV Finance's *World Finance* shows that the annual shipment of China's smart glasses market in 2025 was 2.46 million units.
Calculated according to Rokid's 32% sales share, its annual sales volume is less than 800,000 units.
Austin revealed to Tech Planet that referring to the disclosed prospectus of XREAL, it can be inferred that the annual C-end shipment of leading brands is only about 100,000 units. Since the beginning of this year, superimposed with the impact of industry cycles such as skyrocketing consumer electronics costs and subsidy reduction, the sales side may face greater pressure.
The "others" that all manufacturers gloss over may instead be the biggest uncertain factor in the industry. Austin said that there have been recent rumors in the industry that the largest shipment volume of domestic smart glasses actually comes from Huaqiangbei, namely white-label products, whose sales volume may be close to or even exceed 40% of the entire industry.
Can smart glasses replace mobile phones and become the next-generation entry?
Smart glasses from Huaqiangbei priced at dozens to hundreds of yuan occupy a large share of the market.
Most AI glasses from brands like Rokid and Thunderbird are priced at around 2000-4000 yuan. However, some smart glasses from Huaqiangbei are as cheap as only 50 yuan.
A salesperson from a source factory of Huaqiangbei smart glasses revealed to Tech Planet that the best products they sell and OEM are screen-free audio shooting glasses, smart glasses without display, which are sold for only 50 yuan. Those extremely intelligent products have high costs and cannot sell well because they are too expensive, and the shooting technology is not yet mature.
Another AI glasses drop-shipper in Huaqiangbei told Tech Planet that he is selling several types of AI glasses at the same time, with similar functions. Among several products, AI glasses S3 and G2 sell best, priced at 208 yuan. According to him, AI glasses have very high traffic, and the cross-border e-commerce sales are very good, most of the products he handled are sold to Russia.
High-end and affordable products flow into the market at the same time, so the attention of smart glasses is getting higher and higher. IDC data predicts that global AI glasses shipments are expected to exceed 23 million units in 2026, and the year-on-year growth rate of the domestic market is close to 80%, making the track seem to be on the eve of an outbreak.
However, under the booming financing and shipment data, the other side of the smart glasses industry is that all players are in a loss state, and the return rate on online channels remains high, with the return rate of different channels ranging from 30% to 70%, which is far higher than the 10%-15% return rate of the mobile phone industry. In addition, doubts on social platforms about "whether AI glasses are a waste of money or a useless product" have never stopped.
High return rate and low gross profit. According to TMTPost reports, the return rate of AI glasses this year is still 60% to 70%, and the gross profit of display-type AI glasses is only more than 20%. Most dealers who hold this part of profit margin have not made money. Among major manufacturers, Xiaomi's AI glasses project did not meet internal expectations, with a loss of about 200 million yuan, and the pace of new product launches is also slowing down. XREAL's prospectus shows that its cumulative loss in three years exceeds 2 billion yuan.
Austin said that the current industry is still in a state of widespread loss and "living a hard life", relying on budget control and seeking financing to maintain operation. The continuously decreasing marketing expenses and R&D expenses and the rather tight cash level in XREAL's prospectus also prove the urgency of cost reduction and efficiency improvement from the side.
Overall, the biggest concern of the industry is that no explosive growth point can be seen. In the short term, it may provide consumers with a certain unique visual experience, but in the long run, all parties are still struggling to explain to the mass market what indispensable value smart glasses provide compared with other more mature consumer electronics solutions.
At present, the financing and new product launch speed of smart glasses are in full swing. But for smart glasses brands, even if they get financing and take the lead in occupying a certain market scale, they still need to solve basic user experience demands such as battery life, lightweight and non-perceptual wearing, and active wake-up. The "iPhone moment" of AI glasses may in the end only refer to the moment when someone takes the lead in making products that are lighter, have longer battery life, have safer and more stable performance, and have higher cost performance.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Tech Planet" (ID: tech618), author: Zhai Yuanyuan, published with authorization from 36Kr.