Hypernova smart glasses arrive in mid-tier market with display & gesture controls

Meta is getting ready to release its first smart glasses with a built-in screen next month, according to reports from. MSN based on insider information. The new device has the code name Hypernova and will cost around $800, which is much cheaper than many people expected. Meta has already sold more than two million pairs of its current Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which it makes together with eyewear company EssilorLuxottica.

The current glasses can only take photos and videos, play audio, and do some basic AI tasks. But the new glasses will have augmented reality features that need either a screen built into the lens or the ability to show holograms. Meta shares dropped 2.5% to $765.69 on Monday morning, but they are still up 34% this year. MSN notes that if the stock closes above $796.134, Meta will reach a $2 trillion market value for the first time ever. The company now controls 73% of the global smart glasses market and has invested $3.5 billion in its partnership with EssilorLuxottica to prepare for competition from Google's Android-powered eyewear.

The success of Meta's current business is what allows the company to spend billions on new AI projects, as explained in a detailed analysis by StrateChery examining the company's recent earnings. Meta learned important lessons from 2021-2022 when investors were unhappy about spending money on the metaverse while the main business was slowing down. Back then, Meta's stock price fell below $100. Now the company focuses on delivering strong results today while also investing in future technology.

According to StrateChery, Meta's Chief Financial Officer Susan Li shared that investors once told them directly that they should wait to invest until Meta's big bets were ready to succeed. This feedback changed how Meta thinks about spending money on new projects. StrateChery points out that Meta's advertising business posted 22% revenue growth in the second quarter, reaching $47.5 billion in sales and $18.3 billion in net income. The company's operating margins grew by 5% compared to last year. Meta expects revenue growth of 17% to 24% for the current quarter. The strong performance comes from AI tools that are already helping the advertising business work better, not from the futuristic superintelligence projects that grab headlines.

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Meta's AI investments are paying off right now, not just in the future, according to analysis from Seeking Alpha that shows how the company is winning the current AI race. The company's advertising system uses AI recommendation models that have increased ad conversions by 5% on Instagram and 3% on Facebook. Nearly 2 million advertisers are now using Meta's video generation AI features through its Advantage+ Creative suite. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the creation of Meta Superintelligence Labs during the earnings call, led by Alexander Wang, who was hired as part of a $15 billion investment in his company Scale AI, according to Seeking Alpha.

The team working on superintelligence is called the TBD Lab and has already started developing the next version of Meta's language model called Llama. Seeking Alpha's analysis suggests Meta stock has about 25% upside from current levels. The company generated $8.5 billion in free cash flow and ended the quarter with $47.1 billion in cash. Meta expects to spend between $66 billion and $72 billion on capital investments in 2025, mostly on AI infrastructure. While superintelligence goals get attention, the company's current AI tools are already improving both revenue and profits across all regions where Meta operates.