Goldman Sees Supply Chain Winners
Meta stock, Meta stock price, Alibaba stock, Alibaba stock price, BABA stock, BABA stock price, AI Glasses, artificial intelligence, AI, Xiaomi, HTC
- Alibaba’s Quark AI Glasses went on presale Friday for $660, with a price as low as $519 for its e-commerce platform members.
- Goldman expects long battery life and powerful AI features that focus on interaction with real subjects to attract more potential customers.
- Morgan Stanley sees wearables as generally a “long-term call options” unlikely to affect numbers over the next few years.
Last week, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) unveiled its Quark AI Glasses, with presales starting on Friday, just in time for capitalizing on the ‘Singles Day’ shopping festival. Meta Platforms, Inc. (META), the frontrunner, now faces competition not only from Alibaba but also from a slew of Chinese names.
Against this backdrop, Goldman Sachs analysts weighed in on the competitive dynamics shaping up and their impact on the supply chain.
Smart AI Glasses — A Crowded Field?
Goldman sees the continuous launch of glasses with artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) benefiting the supply chain in Greater China, a CNBC report stated on Sunday.
Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta announced upgrades to its smartglass lineup in mid-September, including the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, advanced AI glasses with a full-color, high-resolution display, priced at $799. Alibaba’s Quark AI Glasses went on presale for $660, with a price as low as $519 for its e-commerce platform members. Deliveries would start in December.
Xiaomi, known for its smartphones, began selling smartglasses in China last summer that allow users to tap the frame to change the lens tint. Meizu, HTC and startup INMO have all launched smartglasses over the past three months, while ByteDance and Chinese startup RayNeo are also due to release their versions in the next few months, the report said.
Meta stock is among the top five trending equity tickers on Stocktwits by late Sunday. Retail sentiment toward the stock remained ‘bearish,’ with ‘low’ message volume on the stream, ahead of the company’s quarterly results on Wednesday.
Tech Features To Increase Uptake
Goldman expects long battery life and powerful AI features that focus on interaction with real subjects to attract more potential customers. The firm noted that Meta has sold more than 3 million units of its second-generation Ray-Ban Meta Glasses in less than two years.
Following the Meta Connect annual event in which the company launched its latest smart AI glasses, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak said, “META’s leading proprietary hardware, AI native integration and unique data sets are key differentiators to capture this outsized opportunity.”
The analyst, however, sees wearables as generally a “long-term call options” unlikely to impact numbers over the next few years. “That said, it is important to monitor how these products are improving as META continues on its multi-year vision to integrate leading large-language models (LLMs) and agentic capabilities into next-generation wearables,” they said.
Advantage Supply Chain
Goldman listed the following Greater China suppliers as beneficiaries of the slew of smartglass launches:
-Omnivision, which makes liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) used in Meta Rayban Display
-Shenzhen-based Lingyi, which has 15% revenue exposure to the AI/AR glasses supply chain
-Hong Kong-listed AAC that makes a range of sensors and slim speakers used in consumer electronics and has about 5% exposure to the AI/AR glasses supply chain
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