Micro-Displays (micro-OLED / LCoS / MicroLED)

Meta used its Meta Connect event to unveil the Muse Charm, a standalone pocket device built exclusively for voice interaction with the company's new Muse agent, alongside a major push into what Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg called Personal Superintelligence. The Muse Charm debut came late Wednesday, and Meta also showed off the Meta VR Glasses, a 100-gram spatial computing headset priced at $1,299 with 5K micro-OLED displays, tethered puck processing, and native eye and hand tracking, plus the third-generation Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 glasses starting at an entry-level $249 and camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses for open-ear listening and AI voice interaction. Meta's Muse has amassed more than 3.4 million downloads since its Sept. 8 launch, according to new Sensor Tower data obtained by Yahoo Finance, including 2.8 million in its first two weeks, versus 3.7 million for OpenAI's ChatGPT, 400,000 for SpaceXAI's Grok, and 300,000 for Anthropic's Claude over the same 14 days post-launch. Meta stock has surged 14% in the past five days, even as it trades on a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 22 times, below its long-term average of 23.1 times, with 2027 EPS estimates still well below levels seen 90 days ago. Citi analyst Ronald Josey said the firm emerges from Meta Connect incrementally positive on Meta shares, calling Muse the centerpiece of Meta's AI product strategy as voice, additional distribution points through Meta Glasses, and services across shopping, travel, and productivity verticals could unlock incremental monetization opportunities.

Meta Platforms unveiled Meta VR Glasses, a roughly 100-gram virtual-reality device that will go on sale in spring 2027 for $1,299.99. The headset features a 5K Infinite Display with micro-OLED panels, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon Reality Elite processor, and integrates Meta AI with eye, voice and hand-gesture controls; a two-part design houses compute, battery and storage in a separate tethered puck. Meta VR Glasses are the first IMAX Enhanced-certified VR device, offering 3D movies and more than 100 immersive live U.S. sports events annually, plus multi-screen workspaces and more than 75 games at launch. The launch comes as Meta's Reality Labs revenues rose 16% year over year to $431 million in the second quarter of 2026, growth that was partially offset by lower Quest headset sales, and as Apple expands Apple Vision Pro into accessibility applications such as eye-based control for power wheelchair drive systems and Alphabet pushes Android XR smart glasses built with Samsung, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker. Meta shares have rallied 17.8% year to date, trailing the broader Zacks Computer & Technology sector's 21.7% return, and carry a forward 12-month Price/Sales of 6.77X versus the Internet Software industry's 4.42X.

Meta's $14.3 billion deal to buy up the employees of AI startup Scale AI, including Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who received about $5 billion as part of the deal, appears to be paying off. Meta's new AI products developed under Wang's leadership have added roughly $200 billion in market value, and Meta has added about $234 billion to its market cap in the past five days. At Meta Connect, Zuckerberg unveiled the Muse Charm, a standalone pocket device built exclusively for voice interaction with the company's new Muse agent, along with the Meta VR Glasses, a 100-gram spatial computing device priced at $1,299 with 5K micro-OLED displays, and the third-generation Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 glasses starting at $249. Muse reached 2.8 million downloads in its first 12 days across the US and Canada App Stores, and surpassed OpenAI's ChatGPT in early adoption, with 1.8 million downloads in Muse's first 12 days compared to 1.3 million for ChatGPT. Muse also set a new US daily download record of 264,000 on Sept. 19, its third straight day above 200,000.

Teradyne has introduced Iris 100, a production-ready optical test platform for microLED devices used in augmented-reality displays and optical interconnects for AI data centers, expanding its AI test portfolio against KLA Corporation and Cohu. The system measures individual emitters across arrays containing millions of microLEDs and integrates with Teradyne's UltraFLEXplus platform for combined optical and electrical testing, supporting wafer and final testing with advanced parallelization and image processing for high-throughput production. AI-driven revenues represented more than 60% of Teradyne's second-quarter 2026 revenues, while total revenues surpassed $1.3 billion, more than doubling year over year. Within that quarter, Semi Test revenues increased 128% year over year, compute revenues surged nearly 600%, and Product Test revenues rose 26% to $107 million. For the third quarter of 2026, Teradyne expects revenues in the range of $1.20-$1.30 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings is pegged at $9.10 per share, unchanged over the past 30 days and suggesting 129.80% year-over-year growth, while Teradyne shares have surged 101% year to date.

Meta used its Meta Connect keynote to unveil a new hardware lineup built around its Muse AI agent, led by the Muse Charm, a standalone pocket device made exclusively for voice interaction. The company also introduced the Meta VR Glasses, a $1,299 spatial computing headset weighing just 100 grams, roughly one-fifth the weight of Meta's Quest 3, with 5K micro-OLED displays, tethered puck processing, and native eye-and-hand tracking. On the smart eyewear side, Meta debuted the third-generation Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 glasses starting at an entry-level $249, joined by the camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses designed purely for open-ear listening and AI voice interaction. KeyBanc analyst Justin Patterson said the keynote showed progress across AI and connected devices and argued more investors will reconsider Meta's ability to participate in the hardware total addressable market, where glasses alone represent a 2 billion user opportunity. Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney called the announcements a strategic shift placing agentic AI, wearable computing, commerce integrations, and privacy infrastructure at the core of Meta's next computing platform, adding that Muse over Metaverse is a good thing for Meta investors. JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth said that while it is still early, Muse has the potential to become the most widely used consumer AI application since ChatGPT.

Meta has taken the lead in the race to build AI-enabled smart glasses, with EssilorLuxottica saying it sold 7 million pairs of AI-enabled glasses in 2025 and Meta growing its smart glasses sales threefold last year. The company recently showed Fortune its growing family of smart glasses at a private demo room at its Menlo Park, California headquarters, including the flagship Ray-Ban Wayfarer camera-enabled glasses with an updated nine-hour battery life, Ray-Bans with a lens display and a neural wristband, new audio-only smart glasses without a built-in camera, new styles including Aviator frames, and prototypes like the Orion augmented reality glasses. Meta on Wednesday also announced a new pair of virtual reality glasses that it says weigh only 100 grams and will ship in the spring for $1,299. Meta's Ray-Ban Display glasses start at $799, its third-generation flagship camera-enabled Ray-Bans cost $449, and the new audio-only glasses start at $349 in the Ray-Ban Clubmaster and Burbank styles. Meta is already facing multiple proposed class-action lawsuits related to its smart glasses, including one alleging it sent some footage captured by the glasses, including highly personal material, to third-party human reviewers for annotation and AI development, allegations Meta disputes. Competitors are trying to win by making privacy central to their designs, with AI startup Even Realities focusing on text-only displays and Taiwan-based HTC Corp.'s Vive Eagle glasses turning off recording if anyone says, Stop recording.

Global AI glasses shipments reached a record 4.2 million units in the first half of 2026, up 127% year-on-year, according to new Omdia data. Meta retained its dominant position, shipping 3.4 million AI glasses to capture an 81.3% market share, while Even Realities climbed from fifth place in 2H25 to second in 1H26 with 102,000 units shipped, a 2.4% share, on demand for its G2 series across North America and Western Europe. While the US remains by far the largest AI glasses market, shipments in Mainland China surged 306% year-on-year in 1H26, though that market remains highly fragmented, with top players Alibaba, INMO, and Xiaomi collectively accounting for just 46.1% of shipments. Omdia Senior Analyst Qiran Ju said growth was driven by Meta's continued market momentum and a wave of new market entrants from China, while Research Director Jason Low said the fragmentation seen in China signals there is no single, one-size-fits-all solution in the AI glasses space. Omdia also warned that intensifying scrutiny of camera-equipped AI glasses will require companies to define exactly what always-on cameras capture, show users how that content is used, and guarantee it never reaches third parties.

Himax Technologies announced that its WiseEye palm vein biometric technology now powers the WAFERLOCK L322, a smart lock by Taiwan-based WAFERLOCK Corporation that has just gone on sale. The lock reads palm vein patterns instead of fingerprints or faces, working even when hands are wet or dirty, and processes data on-device without cloud transmission. This launch follows Himax's second-quarter results that beat its own guidance on revenue, margin, and profit. Automotive displays remain the core business, contributing over half of revenue, with full-year 2026 automotive IC sales expected to grow double digits. Himax also noted a leading global brand launched smart glasses using WiseEye, and co-packaged optics products entered engineering production ramps, with 2027 shipments expected to significantly exceed 2026. The company faces rising manufacturing costs due to supply chain constraints, and accounts receivable rose to $220.3 million from $190.9 million, with cash at $298.7 million expected to decline after a $44 million dividend and employee bonuses.

Rokid has launched its AI-powered smart glasses in Toronto, marking the company's official entry into the North American market. The Rokid Glasses support prescription lenses, and the company has partnered with Markham-based optical supplier Ming's Optical to offer a wide range of prescription options, which may qualify for insurance reimbursement in Canada. The glasses feature real-time AI translation in 89 languages, a 12MP camera, and a Micro-LED display, and are priced at CA$999 for the standard model and CA$549 for the Style variant, with introductory discounts of CA$100 off each through August 31. Rokid also introduced its AI Agent Store and AI UI framework in Canada, inviting local developers to build new AI experiences. The launch follows Rokid's recent entry into European markets and a record-breaking crowdfunding campaign in Japan that raised nearly US$4,000,000.