Meta, the owner of Facebook, is considering a multi-billion euro investment in the eyewear manufacturer EssilorLuxottica to strengthen its smart glasses initiative.
The company from Silicon Valley is considering acquiring a small stake in the 87-billion-euro French-Italian conglomerate, according to several insiders.
This step comes after Meta held talks with EssilorLuxottica to deepen their existing collaboration following the successful launch of the revamped 'Ray-Ban Meta' smart glasses last year.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, has invested billions in the wearable technology market in recent years, including the development of virtual reality headsets. At the same time, EssilorLuxottica, which is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, has also been looking for ways to attract a new generation of customers.
However, there is no guarantee that an investment will actually materialize, according to insiders. Meta is collaborating with Morgan Stanley on this matter.
EssilorLuxottica shares rose by nearly 5 percent on Thursday after the Financial Times report.
Meta, EssilorLuxottica and Morgan Stanley declined to comment.
The first Ray-Ban Meta glasses were introduced in 2021, but the latest generation, which launched in October last year, sold better in a few months than the previous generation did in two years, said Francesco Milleri, CEO of EssilorLuxottica, earlier this week at an event.
The latest version of the glasses allows users to stream what they see directly on Facebook and Instagram. In the USA, the glasses are integrated with Meta's AI assistant, so users can access more information about what they see in front of them.
This week, EssilorLuxottica agreed to acquire the US streetwear label Supreme for $1.5 billion. Insiders reported that the eyewear manufacturer intends to launch a new version of the Supreme Smart Sunglasses in partnership with Meta, aimed at better appealing to young consumers.
Meta and the competitor Apple are competing to develop unobtrusive augmented reality glasses that could one day replace the smartphone as the next generation of computing devices. However, the technology is still in its early stages, and consumers are hesitant to wear bulky devices on their faces.
Zuckerberg said during an earnings announcement in April that the prospects for smart glasses had 'significantly improved' and that this was one of the 'major areas' in which the company was investing within its AR and VR division, Reality Labs.
Earlier, he had said that glasses would need 'full holographic displays' to become a big market, but the success of Meta Ray-Bans has proven the opposite.
If we want everyone to be able to use wearable AI, I think glasses are somewhat different from phones or watches because people will prefer very different designs," he added. "Our approach of cooperating with leading glasses brands will help us serve more of the market.
EssilorLuxottica, which was formed seven years ago through a complex merger of the eyewear company Luxottica founded by the late Italian billionaire Leonardo Del Vecchio and the French lens manufacturer Essilor, has steadily grown to become the world's largest eyewear manufacturer.
In recent years, acquisitions of technology and engineering companies have been at the center of his strategy. In 2022, the group acquired the Israeli hearing technology start-up Nuance Hearing to develop glasses with its acoustic beamforming technology.
This week, EssilorLuxottica also acquired an 80 percent stake in Heidelberg Engineering, a German company specializing in eye surgery technologies, as part of its push into the medtech sector.
