Alibaba Shakes Up Wearables: AI Smart Glasses Teaser Drops Ahead of Rivals

Alibaba just blindsided the wearables market with a surprise AI smart glasses teaser—no specs, no price, just pure disruption.

Why it matters: The e-commerce giant's move threatens Apple, Meta, and Google's AR dominance overnight. No 'metaverse' buzzwords—just a direct shot at the $50B smart glasses arena.

The finance twist: Investors are already dumping speculative VR stocks—because nothing says 'bubble' like legacy tech scrambling to match Chinese innovation.

Alibaba showcases its AI-powered smart glasses

This unveiling marks Alibaba’s debut in the smart glasses market, which has seen an increase in local competition. Domestic firms like Rokid and Xreal have been working overtime, releasing new products to users over the past few months. Alibaba has also deepened its reach in the industry, inking a partnership with augmented reality glasses Maker RayNeo earlier this year.

The partnership will see the company provide AI support for the Hong Kong-based firm’s products. Alibaba is expected to use its Qwen large language models (LLMs), the technology underpinning its generative AI services, to provide the exclusive service to RayNeo’s products.

“This partnership represents a new application of the Qwen LLM in the field of smart glasses,” Zhou Jingren, chief technology officer of Alibaba Cloud, said. The collaboration also marked the first in-depth partnership between an LLM developer and an AI glasses manufacturer in China.

Speaking about the new AI smart glasses at a sub-forum, the head of smart terminal business at Alibaba’s Intelligent Information business group, Song Gang, mentioned that AI glasses are expected to become the most important FORM of wearable intelligence in the future. Gang said that the product will serve as another pair of eyes and ears for humans.

This recent MOVE is part of a broader strategy by Alibaba to increase its AI offering. The Hangzhou-based tech company announced in February that it is committed to investing about $53 billion into AI infrastructure in the next three years. The company said at the time that the funding, which is the largest in China by a single private business, shows its commitment to AI.

Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu Yongming said the company plans to pursue an aggressive investment strategy at that time. The move came after the popularity of Chinese startup DeepSeek and the popularity of its models at the beginning of the year. The startup released its globally accepted R1 model, a model that outpaced many existing models at the time.

Alibaba is also expected to improve the development of its software and hardware products through its Qwen AI model series.

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