Smart Ray Glass, June 16, 2024, in Caen, Normandy, France.
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Ray-Ban Maker shares Essilorluxottica It was reported on Wednesday that almost 6% Yuan The company has a minority stake in the company due to the growing demand for AI-powered wearables.
Meta reportedly bought a stake in Essilorluxottica at its current market price of about 3 billion euros ($3.51 billion) and is considering further investments that could expand its share to 5%, Bloomberg said. Report On Tuesday, unnamed sources familiar with the matter were cited.
Meta declined to comment when CNBC contacted Essilorluxottica.
By 10:25 am London time, Essilorluxottica’s share price rose 5.8%.
The investment (if confirmed) shows Meta’s ongoing development of wearable technology (a major priority for CEO Mark Zuckerberg) and the company’s opportunity to build its own hardware product line.
Meta and Essilorluxottica first established a partnership in 2019, producing two generations of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. The initial version debuted in 2021, but the duo’s second-generation model released in 2023 has achieved even greater success.
The latter version comes with Meta AI voice assistant and includes when tying a smartphone to a smartphone, allowing users to identify city landmarks, get recipes when viewing ingredients, and record and send voice messages on WhatsApp and Messenger.
Francesco Milleri, CEO of Essilorluxottica, said the companies have sold 2 million pairs of Meta Ray-Ban glasses in February since the end of 2023, and he aims to increase annual output to 10 million units by the end of 2026.
The two companies said last month They also plan to release versions of their AI-powered smart glasses under the Oakley and Prada brands.
– Salvador Rodriguez and Jonathan Vanian of CNBC contributed to the report.
