Smart glasses took center stage at CES 2026 in Las Vegas last week, highlighting a new generation of AI-enabled eyewear integrated with real-time assistants.

In Meta's case, the push is clearly toward affordability and mass adoption, positioning these glasses as everyday consumer electronics rather than super expensive niche hardware for elites.

A lesson for smart glasses manufacturers is not to repeat Apple's misstep with the prohibitively priced Vision Pro, which crushed any chance of widespread adoption and eventually led to the exodus of developers.

Before affordable smart glasses hit the consumer market this year and next, Goldman analyst Jerry Shen published a clear, straightforward view of the AI and AR glasses supply chain, breaking it down by the companies that supply the critical components behind these devices.

We suspect demand will accelerate this year after a Bloomberg report earlier this week revealed that Meta has asked its smart-glasses manufacturing partner, EssilorLuxottica, to double production capacity for AI-powered smart glasses by year-end.