Mark Zuckerberg stated recently in The Verge that Meta is considering investing in EssilorLuxottica, the world-famous eyeglasses maker.
This is part of the long-term collaboration of the two companies that started in 2019 to design advanced smart eyewear.
Zuckerberg emphasized that the investment is a token amount meant to strengthen the association of Meta and EssilorLuxottica.
"We would like this to be a long-term relationship, and I thought this would be a nice gesture," Meta’s CEO further noted in an interview. He also praised the eyeglasses maker, saying, “I fundamentally believe in them a lot. I think they’re going to go from being the premier glasses company in the world to one of the major technology companies in the world.”
The partnership between the two parties has been in progress since 2019. This collaboration has resulted in the release of two generations of Ray-Ban branded smart glasses.
The most recent Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses met with demand more positively than was anticipated. "It had seen three to five times higher sales compared to the first generation," Zuckerberg noted.
The technology giant also presented its first augmented reality (AR) glasses prototype, known as Orion at the Connect 2024 Conference. These will form a core part of Meta's much broader vision for immersive technologies, including AR and the metaverse. Read more
The French-Italian group had earlier confirmed that Meta might take a 5% stake in the company, based on news by the Wall Street Journal. However, since the talks have been ongoing, comments from Zuckerberg indicate that Meta’s investment would be more on reinforcing their collaboration than making an imposing financial position in the company.