This week, Chinese giant Alibaba demonstrated its desire to have an indirect presence in the augmented reality market by announcing a partnership with Hong Kong-based AR glasses maker RayNeo. Devices of this brand will use the large Qwen language models of the Chinese company Alibaba.
Image source: RayNeo
According to project participants, this is the first time that large language model developers have collaborated with a smart glasses manufacturer in China. Prior to this, Alibaba had not used its Qwen language models in this way, except for cooperation with the American startup Rokid, founded by a former Alibaba employee. The alliance was unveiled last November, as was Baidu’s collaboration with smart glasses maker Xiaodu, which gained access to Ernie’s large language model. RayNeo was founded in 2021 by display and TV manufacturer TCL Electronics Holdings. The company managed to sell more than 5,000 pairs of the recently introduced RayNeo Air3 augmented reality glasses. At CES 2025, the company plans to introduce a couple of new models, including glasses with a smart camera that allows them to recognize objects.
Originally American companies also do not miss the opportunity to connect wearable devices with artificial intelligence. In September, Meta✴ Platforms introduced Orion augmented reality glasses, and before that it collaborated with the glasses manufacturer Ray-Ban. Alibaba sees augmented reality glasses as an ideal platform for using large language models. Further cooperation with smart glasses manufacturers will allow Alibaba to create models with a higher level of customization.
According to WellsennXR, sales of augmented reality glasses will grow to 55 million units per year by 2029. Last year, the smart glasses market capacity reached $1.93 billion in monetary terms. It will increase at an average annual rate of 27.3% over the next five years to reach $8.26 billion by the end of the decade.