By Adam Clark

Smart glasses could be the next big consumer hardware category, and everyone wants to cash in. Investors looking to play the trend can focus on retailers and suppliers set to benefit from the wave of demand.

The landscape has been transformed since the failure of Google Glass, the search company's early foray into smart glasses that was axed in 2015. Improvements in design and the rise of artificial intelligence have led to huge advances. The vision of enthusiasts like Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is that AI-equipped glasses could eventually replace the smartphone as the primary consumer device.

"[Smart glasses] can see what you can see and hear what you can hear, and you can have a conversation with it, like you're talking to a person, " Akash Palkhiwala, Qualcomm's chief financial officer, said. "It's perfectly suited to have an agentic AI experience."

Meta Sets the Pace

Meta has taken an early lead with its Ray-Ban-branded eyewear. According to Omdia, global shipments of smart glasses reached 8.7 million units in 2025, more than quadrupling year over year. Meta holds more than 85% of the market. Shipments are expected to reach 15 million this year.

Apple, Google, and Samsung are all expected to launch AI-equipped eyewear soon. But smart glasses will need to scale significantly to make a meaningful contribution for major tech companies. Revenue for Meta's Reality Labs segment, which includes wearables, was $2.21 billion in 2025, up from $2.15 billion in 2024 -- a relatively small contribution. Meta doesn't disclose smart-glasses revenue separately.

Some Wall Street analysts think certain Big Tech brands are better set up for success than their rivals. J.P. Morgan's Samik Chatterjee estimates Apple could ship 50 million pairs of smart glasses by the end of the decade, worth more than $15 billion in revenue.

Some companies could benefit sooner. EssilorLuxottica, Meta's manufacturing partner and the owner of Ray-Ban, has already been a major beneficiary. The group hit record highs in late 2025 on rising sales of smart glasses and a reported $3.5 billion investment from Meta. With a market cap of just over $100 billion, EssilorLuxottica has joined the ranks of Europe's 30 largest public companies.

However, EssilorLuxottica shares have pulled back sharply since last year amid concerns about competition from Apple and Alphabet's Google. And market share is not the only headwind -- there is no guarantee smart glasses will achieve mass adoption or navigate global regulations.

Privacy is the immediate hurdle. Meta and EssilorLuxottica face a lawsuit in the U.S. seeking class-action status over concerns that data collection from smart glasses violates users' privacy. The claim alleges video captured on the devices is routed to contractors in Africa for AI training purposes, citing whistle-blower complaints.

Meta and EssilorLuxottica didn't respond to requests for comment. Meta has previously said media stays on a user's device unless they choose to share it with the company, and that it filters content to protect privacy.

Smart Shopping

New entrants will have to overcome such challenges. In the U.S., Warby Parker is the eyewear partner for Alphabet's Google. Its stock jumped when the partnership was announced, alongside a $75 million investment from Google.

Warby Parker's partnerships with Google and Samsung could allow it to double its market share in smart glasses compared with traditional eyewear, according to Stifel analyst Peter McGoldrick. He has a $25 target price and a Hold rating on shares trading near $24, and forecasts sales of about 700,000 pairs by 2030. He noted stronger adoption could push that as high as four million pairs.

Eyewear retailer National Vision is another potential winner. The company plans to roll out Meta smart glasses to all its stores by the end of the second quarter. By 2030, it could generate around 10% of sales and an even larger share of earnings from smart glasses, according to UBS analyst Michael Lasser, who has a Buy rating and a $42 target price. National Vision shares trade near $28 and have more than doubled in the past year as the company focuses on premium products.

Counting Chips

Two large-cap companies already generating revenue from optical hardware are chip companies Qualcomm and GlobalFoundries. Qualcomm aims for more than $2 billion in revenue from extended-reality devices, including smart glasses, by 2029. CFO Palkhiwala told Barron's the company is "well ahead" of that target, although the stock has fallen 23% over the past 12 months amid concerns about its core smartphone market.

"Qualcomm is the most important merchant supplier because it already sits at the center of Meta's smart glasses effort and has the broadest commercial wearable/extended reality platform," said Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at Futurum Equities.

While Qualcomm provides the central processor -- the brain behind smart specs -- GlobalFoundries makes components for displays and radio signals. Its display technology will be key as the market shifts toward glasses with built-in screens.

GlobalFoundries' senior vice president of end markets Faisal Saleem envisions a world where 10% of glasses wearers adopt smart versions, meaning 300 million customers replacing pairs every two years.

"This is over a billion dollars' worth of opportunity for all the foundries combined," Saleem said. "I think we have a really good shot at being the dominant player for this particular category."

Power and Intellectual Property

Batteries are another key component. Nasdaq-traded Enovix, a specialist in high-energy-density, silicon-anode batteries, is one U.S. player to watch. Benchmark Research analyst Mickey Legg has a Buy rating and a $25 target price. Struggles in the smartphone market have pushed shares down 40% over the past year to around $5, but smart glasses offer potential for a turnaround.

"Smart eyewear remains a nascent market with no clear incumbent, offering Enovix an opportunity to establish early leadership," Legg wrote.

A more speculative bet is augmented-reality hardware specialist Vuzix. While its product revenue is negligible by big-tech standards and it has a market cap of just $200 million, it claims more than 450 patents and patents pending, along with intellectual-property licenses across optics, head-mounted displays, and wearables.

"Augmented reality could end up looking a lot like the royalty layer in smartphones, where a small set of IP owners extract value from a much larger hardware ecosystem," Boloor said.

The shift from niche to mainstream appears under way for smart glasses. The entry of Apple and Google should add momentum and spur innovation around privacy and cost. Picking a winner may be difficult, but backing the suppliers and retailers enabling the ecosystem could be the smarter way to play the smart glasses revolution.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 31, 2026 01:01 ET (05:01 GMT)

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