VR / MR Headset OEMs

Meta Connect 2026 begins Wednesday, September 23 at 4:00 P.M. at Meta's campus in Menlo Park, California, headlining a week of investor events that also includes McDonald's Investor Day and a White House meeting between President Trump and China President Xi. The two-day livestreamed Meta showcase will include updates on the company's latest work in AI, AI-powered glasses, virtual and mixed reality, and related developer technologies, with major product announcements and a keynote from CEO Mark Zuckerberg anticipated. McDonald's holds its highly-anticipated Investor Day the same day, with investors watching how management plans to restore U.S. momentum while sustaining international growth and the durability of its new beverage platform, whose launches in the U.S., Canada, and Germany reportedly exceeded expectations. On Thursday, September 24, President Trump meets China President Xi at the White House, with Taiwan, AI, tariffs, and global conflicts expected on the agenda and more details possible on China's purchase of Boeing aircraft; Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon are expected at the evening state dinner. Also Thursday, a bond hearing is scheduled at 4:30 p.m. related to Paramount Skydance's planned $110B purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery. The week's earnings slate includes Autozone, Thor Industries, and KB Home on Tuesday; Cintas, Paychex, General Mills, and Cracker Barrel on Wednesday; and Darden Restaurants and Costco on Thursday.

Citi analyst Ronald Josey reiterated a Buy rating and $800 price target on Meta Platforms and added an upside 90-day catalyst watch, flagging the company's September 23 Connect conference as the near-term trigger for the stock. Josey told clients Meta's product roadmap brings multiple catalysts ahead, with Connect expected to deliver clarity on product strategy including updates for Muse, next-generation models, and Meta glasses. Options traders are leaning bullish into the event, with 4,522 calls traded against 1,726 puts at the September 23 expiration, while Meta AI daily interactions rose 60% after the assistant was rebuilt and integrated with Muse Spark. Meta reported Q2 2026 revenue of $60.80 billion, up 27.96% year over year, but diluted EPS of $6.18 missed consensus by 14.42% as total costs jumped on legal charges and severance, and free cash flow collapsed to $784 million while full-year 2026 capex was narrowed to $130 to $145 billion. The stock trades at $681.31, up 11.06% over the past week, at a forward P/E of 20 against a consensus analyst target of $758.28, with an operating margin of 41.4% and a market cap near $1.50 trillion.

Snap launched its $2,195 Specs augmented reality glasses on Wednesday, detailing the eyewear's capabilities and its new Specs Intelligence AI platform. The Specs, first revealed at the Augmented World Expo in June, are self-contained wearable computers that do not need to be connected to an external device to run apps or other software, unlike Meta's $799 Ray-Ban Display glasses, which require a compatible smartphone. Specs include two built-in displays, one for each lens, while the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses have a single display in the lower right corner of the right lens. Snap is pitching Specs for uses ranging from AR games with friends who own their own pair to a virtual big-screen TV or an AR-powered navigation system, and the Specs Intelligence software, also available via Mac and iPhone, connects to apps including Messages, Gmail and Slack. Beyond consumers, Snap is targeting the enterprise space, citing work with Salesforce on field workers identifying objects and with Nvidia to bring the chip giant's AI agents to the glasses.

Meta Platforms plans to release smart glasses without a camera this autumn, US media outlet The Information reported on the 15th, citing people familiar with the matter. The new smart glasses are known internally at Meta by the codename 'Luna' and will pack six microphones, letting users converse with Meta's AI chatbot and with 'Muse', the consumer AI agent the company has newly begun offering. There is a button on the side to quickly launch Meta AI, and the speakers will be the same as those in the current model. According to the report, Meta may unveil the product at its annual developer conference on the 23rd and 24th, with shipping targeted for October. Meta did not respond to a request for comment.

Snap Inc. launched Snapchat Plans, a set of tools that lets users organize gatherings, send invitations and collect responses without leaving the app, with groups capped at 200 people and invite-only access plus a My Plans section on profiles to track commitments. Snap says about a third of young US users already arrange meet-ups through chats and messages. The company begins selling Specs, its first augmented reality glasses, on September 16 at $2,195, and gave an upbeat forecast for the current quarter last month ahead of that debut. Subscription products including Snapchat+ and the Memories storage plan have reduced its dependence on advertising. Meta Platforms, Google's YouTube and TikTok are all defendants in national litigation alleging they designed products to be addictive to young users, and Snap has been publicly arguing it isn't social media at all, with Evan Spiegel writing in his annual letter this week that TikTok has trends, Meta has scale, and Snapchat knows the real you.

Apple is expected to announce its biggest iPhone update in history, including its first foldable phone, at an event led by new CEO John Ternus. The company will likely reveal the foldable alongside iPhone 18 Pro models, Apple Watch Series 12, AirPods 5, and updates to MacBook and home products, with more details on Siri AI. It's also Apple's first big event to be led by new CEO John Ternus. The foldable, expected to cost around $2,000 for the base model, would help Apple compete with Samsung and give Ternus a flashy new product as he begins his tenure. Apple's price hikes of 15% to 33% across Mac, iPad, and home devices, due to a memory chip shortage, and a disappointing revenue forecast for the fiscal fourth quarter, add to the scrutiny of this launch.

Emdoor Information released its 2026 interim report, with net profit attributable to the parent company soaring 1,614.8% year on year to 196 million yuan. The company's operating revenue was 2.75 billion yuan, up 80.7% year on year; net profit attributable to the parent after deducting non-recurring items was 103 million yuan, up 756.3% year on year; net operating cash flow was negative 744 million yuan, down 134.2% year on year. In the second quarter, operating revenue was 1.61 billion yuan, up 65.9% year on year, and net profit attributable to the parent was 153 million yuan, up 1,076.4% year on year. The company said that, influenced by the wave of AI technology in the global consumer electronics industry, the sector is undergoing a structural recovery. The company continues to deepen its AI-plus core development strategy. Operating revenue from smart hardware products grew 59.23%, XR and AIoT business grew 133.29%, and domestic substitution business grew 51.72%.

Apple and OpenAI have escalated their legal fight over trade secrets, with OpenAI calling Apple's allegations baseless and seeking dismissal of the lawsuit. Apple sued OpenAI last month in San Jose, California, accusing the AI company of orchestrating a campaign to steal trade secrets through former employees as it develops its own consumer hardware device. In a Monday filing, Apple described OpenAI's actions as repeated instances of deliberate theft, while OpenAI's Wednesday response called the complaint rotten to its core and argued that Apple should not be permitted to use a baseless lawsuit to make up for its shortcomings in the talent market. Federal Judge Edward Davila will consider both requests at an October 1 hearing. The dispute unfolds even as the two companies remain partners, with ChatGPT integrated into Apple products since 2024, and centers on OpenAI's secretive device project, reportedly a screenless smart speaker designed with Jony Ive's LoveFrom studio, which Bloomberg says could launch in 2027 at a price between $300 and $400.

Meta Platforms is set to report its second-quarter 2026 financial results after the U.S. market closes on Wednesday, July 29th. Zacks Consensus Analyst Estimates project revenue of approximately $60.17 billion, representing 26.63% year-over-year growth, while earnings per share are expected to be $7.13, a slight decline of 0.14% from the prior year. The company has beaten Zacks Consensus Estimates for 13 consecutive quarters, with an average surprise of 12.31% over the past four quarters. The options market is pricing in a post-earnings move of plus or minus 7.3% in Meta shares, which have fallen 15.2% over the past year, underperforming the S&P 500's 18.6% gain. Key areas of focus include soaring capital expenditures, with full-year 2026 capex expected between $125 billion and $145 billion, potential AI infrastructure partnerships such as a rumored multi-billion-dollar deal with Anthropic, and the performance of the Reality Labs hardware and metaverse division.

Meta Platforms is funding a $125 billion to $145 billion AI capital expenditure plan entirely from its own cash, even as the stock fell 8.79% in the past week on AI fatigue. In the first quarter of 2026, the company posted $56.31 billion in revenue, with ad impressions up 19% year over year and average price per ad up 12%, while earnings per share of $10.44 beat consensus by 57% for a fifth straight quarter. Free cash flow reached $12.39 billion, and the company returned $26.25 billion to shareholders through buybacks in 2025, supported by an operating margin of 41.44% and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. By contrast, Alphabet reported negative $5.86 billion in free cash flow and suspended its buyback program in the second quarter of 2026. Reality Labs lost $4.03 billion in the first quarter, but the Family of Apps segment generated $55.9 billion in revenue, roughly 140 times the Reality Labs figure, cushioning the risk. Prediction markets give a 96.3% probability of another earnings beat when Meta reports on July 29.

Virtuix Holdings has sold its first Omni One Enterprise system to Tesla for use in the Optimus humanoid robot division. The purchase marks Virtuix’s expansion into enterprise and humanoid robot applications, following earlier milestones in consumer, defense, and healthcare markets with partners including Meta, NASA, and all four major branches of the U.S. military. Omni One Enterprise enables natural movement in immersive virtual environments within a compact footprint, supporting training, simulation, and teleoperation of humanoid robots. Founder and CEO Jan Goetgeluk said the platform is demonstrating versatility beyond its original consumer market as organizations adopt immersive technologies for training and simulation.

Apple is making privacy a central part of its smart-glasses strategy as it tries to overcome concerns about camera-equipped AI wearables. The company has reportedly delayed the product partly to refine both the hardware and its privacy policies, and is now targeting a reveal at its Worldwide Developers Conference next June, followed by a consumer launch by the end of 2027. Apple is exploring safeguards including more on-device AI processing, no facial recognition, limits on continuous environmental scanning, and a policy against using customer recordings to train its models. The approach could help Apple differentiate its glasses from Meta's Ray-Ban devices, which helped popularize the category but also intensified concerns about covert recording.

Virtuix Holdings expects to report a major increase in sales following the launch of Omni One for Quest in collaboration with Meta, and will discuss its first quarter fiscal year 2027 results on a conference call on Thursday, August 13, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. The company, which develops AI-driven full-body simulation systems, will provide an update on accelerating momentum across consumer, defense, and enterprise initiatives, including expanding government traction for AI-driven defense simulations and NASA deployments, healthcare collaborations, and recent industry recognition for robotics applications. Chairman and CEO Jan Goetgeluk described the quarter as one of the strongest in recent history, citing rapid traction in the defense business and pending strategic initiatives. A press release with detailed results will be issued before the call, which will be hosted by Goetgeluk and CFO Thomas McGinnis and will include a question-and-answer period.

Virtuix Holdings Inc. is seeing strong momentum from its Omni One for Quest launch and expanding defense contracts, CEO Jan Goetgeluk said during an Emerging Growth Conference presentation. The Meta-compatible product, now working with Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets, has exceeded expectations and opens access to roughly 6 million active Meta Quest users. On the defense side, Virtuix is working with the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, and is the lead integrator on a Marine Corps fire-team virtual trainer project, while also recently receiving a Phase I SBIR award from the U.S. Air Force. The company reported 18% year-over-year revenue growth and a production capacity of 3,000 Omni One units per month, equating to about $100 million in annual revenue potential. Virtuix is also exploring AI-driven digital twin reconstruction, robotics teleoperation, and healthcare applications, and is evaluating defense-related acquisitions of companies with $10 million to $50 million in revenue.

Apple's lawsuit against OpenAI over alleged trade secret theft signals that the iPhone maker sees a future where it must leverage new AI devices beyond the smartphone, according to Deepwater Asset Management managing partner Gene Munster. The suit, filed Friday, names OpenAI, its hardware chief, former Apple VP Tang Tan, and former Apple engineer Chang Liu, and also targets io Products, an AI hardware firm founded by Tan and acquired by OpenAI. Munster said the aggressive pursuit of Tan underscores Apple's belief that its AI hardware roadmap will not rely exclusively on the iPhone, pointing to potential products like AirPods with cameras. Bloomberg has reported that Apple is developing such AI-powered devices, and Munster noted that while OpenAI's hardware is still in development, a successful launch could lock in a long-term user base.

Qualcomm has introduced its Snapdragon Reality Elite platform, targeting on-device AI and spatial computing for mixed reality and spatial computing devices. The platform is tuned for next-generation immersive experiences, broadening Qualcomm's reach beyond smartphones into a wider set of AI and connectivity use cases. The move connects the company more directly with device makers building headsets and other immersive hardware. The focus on on-device generative AI and immersive experiences may interest investors following themes around AI processing at the edge.

Qualcomm Technologies introduced the Snapdragon Reality Elite platform on June 16, designed to support next-generation immersive spatial computing and mixed reality devices. The platform features significant hardware upgrades delivering substantial improvements in GPU, CPU, and NPU performance, enabling higher visual fidelity and faster, more complex mixed reality scenarios. It provides 48 TOPS of processing power for on-device generative AI, allowing large vision and language models to run directly on the device, enhancing contextual awareness, tracking precision, and real-time interaction. The platform also achieves up to 20% longer battery life and cooler operating temperatures than previous iterations, with the XREAL Project Aura set to be the first device to feature the new technology.

Virtuix Inc. launched Omni One for Quest in June 2026, integrating its omni-directional treadmill with Meta Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets under Meta’s “Made for Meta” program and featuring the system in the Meta Store with bundled, Omni-optimized games. The move connects Virtuix to millions of active Quest users and deepens its position in full-body XR interaction, creating broader opportunities for recurring content partnerships and defense-oriented training applications. The launch strengthens the near-term investment narrative by potentially accelerating hardware sell-through and content partnerships, while parallel defense wins hint at a second revenue lane in training and simulation. However, revenue remains small, losses are large, the balance sheet carries negative equity, and the stock’s sharp decline suggests expectations have already been reined in. Adoption and monetization of Omni One inside the Quest ecosystem now sit at the center of both upside catalysts and execution risk.

Apple's vice president of hardware engineering in the Vision Products Group, Paul Meade, is leaving to join OpenAI in a similar role, according to Bloomberg. Meade will work in OpenAI's hardware unit, helping develop its upcoming lineup of AI-powered devices. He spent seven years at Apple, where he was instrumental in developing the Vision Pro and worked on the company's display-free smart glasses expected next year. Meade will reunite with former Apple colleagues Jony Ive, Tang Tan, and Evans Hankey, whose AI hardware startup was acquired by OpenAI last year for $6.5 billion. The departure may be linked to John Ternus becoming Apple's CEO on September 1, as Ternus was Meade's former boss, and new chief hardware officer Johny Srouji has reorganized executive roles.