Rokid Global@RokidGlobalOptics and AIAI score2424

Great to see our smart glasses helping bring on-device native VLMs into real industrial workflows. This is exactly the value an open ecosystem can unlock: models, chips and devices working together to create real-world value. 😎 https://twitter.com/STL_AI/status/2110219163767853414

Leqi second-generation AI glasses outlook: four optical challenges for diffractive waveguides

The article argues that AI capabilities can be upgraded over the air, but the optical experience of a diffractive waveguide is hard to fix once finalized. The development of Leqi's second-generation AI glasses focuses on four engineering challenges: hiding the grating, suppressing rainbow artifacts, thinning the lens, and reducing reflections while preserving brightness. These are also the issues consumer AI glasses must solve to look like ordinary eyewear.

AI Glasses Begin to Offer Proactive Services

An article by VR Tuoluo notes that some AI glasses can now record everyday conversations with user permission, organize key information into searchable long-term memory, and extract schedules from conversations to send proactive reminders. Brands including RayNeo have introduced such features.

Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy Support Precision Agriculture

A Laser Focus World article describes how photonics provides new measurement tools for agriculture, including monitoring crop conditions, assessing food quality and controlling plant growth.

Zuckerberg's net worth rises to fourth in the world as Meta smart glasses and AI business draw attention

On September 24, Zuckerberg's net worth reached about $266.4 billion, surpassing Michael Dell to become the world's fourth-richest person. Meta shares closed at $777.59 that day, up about 36% in September. The article argues that the AI agent Muse, launched on September 8, boosted market sentiment, and discusses Meta's smart glasses business.

Qwen N1 Pro and Wigain Flow Add Eye Sensing, as AI Glasses Fill the Personal Context Gap

A VR Tuoluo article notes that the Qwen AI Glasses N1 Pro, unveiled on September 22, adds high-precision eye tracking for visual question answering, object recognition and iris payment. The Wigain Flow full-color AI glasses from Qiuguo, planned for release later, also place an iris camera in the nose pads for identity verification. Eye data is emerging as a new data source for AI glasses to understand users.

The Price Dilemma of Micro-Optical Engines for AR Glasses, Seen Through the Supply Chain

The article argues that the core bottleneck keeping AR glasses from the mass market is not chips or software, but the micro-optical engine inside the temples. The micro-optical engine is the image-generation core of AR glasses, and its price remains high even after mass production, with most mass-produced models still selling for several thousand yuan or even more than 10,000 yuan.

Vision-Only vs. LiDAR Fusion: Which Demands More Computing Power?

The article analyzes the computing requirements of vision-only and LiDAR-fusion approaches in autonomous driving, arguing that computing demand is not simply determined by the number of sensors, but by how the perception system processes data and by its algorithm architecture.

Lumentum Capacity Under Strain: What Businesses Beyond EML and CW Lasers Drive Its Strength

An article by Haitun Jun continues the breakdown of Lumentum: EML secures the core profit base of pluggable optical transceivers, while high-power discrete lasers, UHP CW, bet on next-generation CPO/NPO architectures. With supply and demand severely mismatched for high-end laser chips, leading manufacturers with in-house capacity simultaneously benefit from price increases, long-term orders and rising gross margins.

From Pixels to Optical Links: MicroLED Shifts to Co-Packaged Optics

A Laser Focus World article analyzes the surge in industry interest in MicroLED co-packaged optics (CPO) solutions, reflecting their multiple advantages, although technical challenges remain to be resolved.

From Fiber to the Server: Building Fiber Infrastructure for AI-Ready Networks

A Lightwave article notes that broadband networks are converging on architectures combining HFC, fiber, wireless and edge connectivity, placing higher demands on physical-layer density, speed and operations, and requiring fiber infrastructure built for AI.

In Conversation with Phenix Optics: A 60-Year Optics Veteran Embraces 'Light + AI'

During the 27th CIOE, Phenix Optics brand director Guo Jingyun spoke to Ofweek Optics about how the company, founded in 1965 and the first listed company in the optics industry, is seeking new opportunities in the 'Light + AI' wave.

Are DOE and Metasurfaces the Same Thing?

Citing Yole's 2025 diffractive optics report, the article notes that metasurfaces are a nanoscale subclass of DOE diffractive optical elements, not a replacement. The two have diverged in physical mechanisms, manufacturing routes and industrialization stages: traditional DOEs support today's volume production of AR optical waveguides, while metasurfaces carry future upgrades.

The Other Side of the First Year of Waveguide Mass Production: Capacity Is in Place, but Is Yield Keeping Up?

The article argues that 2026 is the first year of optical waveguide mass production, with multiple production capacities of one million units coming online, but capacity expansion does not equal stable mass production. The core barrier has shifted from whether it can be done to whether it can be done consistently at high yield. The three major bottlenecks in materials, processes and inspection are interlinked, requiring end-to-end system capabilities.

Industry Analysis: Silicon Carbide Waveguides Shift from Performance Option to Mass Production Essential

An OFweek article analyzes how silicon carbide optical waveguides are moving from an alternative AR performance material to a core element of mass production, with materials, chips and modules all scaling up simultaneously. It cites actions including Aifalong's oversubscribed Series B round of more than 100 million yuan to build an 8-inch silicon carbide metasurface optical waveguide chip production line, Guangna Siwei's financing of nearly 200 million yuan, and Goertek Optics' F50Se module achieving a 50-degree field of view. The author believes cost, processing yield and supply chain maturity remain the three hurdles before large-scale deployment, with the current average price of a SiC waveguide chip at 250-350 US dollars.

From Optical Interconnect Veteran to All-Round Enabler, What Makes Lumentum Special?

An article by Dolphin Research breaks down Lumentum: its share price has risen nearly tenfold in one year, its market value exceeds 70 billion US dollars, and Nvidia invested 2 billion US dollars for a stake in March 2026. The article argues that no matter how optical module form factors change, the position of high-value, barrier-protected optical engines remains solid.

China's Top Three LiDAR Players Reorder Their Business Priorities as Growth Logic Diverges

Hesai, Seyond and RoboSense successively released financial reports in August. Comparing the three, the article points out that as mass-produced vehicle models, robotics and embodied intelligence become real demand, the growth logic of leading LiDAR companies is diverging.

Whose Golden Week Needs a Pair of AI Glasses Most?

The article looks at AI tour-guide glasses: tourists wearing the same AI glasses have appeared in Shanghai, hearing the story of the Huxinting Teahouse by the Nine-Turn Bridge and placing voice orders for xiaolongbao at Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant. Earlier, iFlytek AI glasses gained popularity among outbound travelers with real-time cross-border translation.

Photon Bridge CCO: Tackling Mass-Production Bottlenecks for External Light Sources in AI Optical Interconnects

In an exclusive interview with C114, Photon Bridge's Chief Commercial Officer discusses the interconnect bandwidth pressure created by expanding AI compute clusters and the role of integrated photonics in breaking through optical module power and density limits, with a focus on the mass-production challenges of external light sources (ELS) and the Dutch integrated photonics ecosystem.

CIOE 2026 AR Optics Review: Mass Production, Thin-and-Light Design and Color Emerge as Keywords

At the 27th CIOE and SIVA 2026, the keywords for VR/AR optics centered on mass production, thin-and-light design, and color displays for AR glasses. The article summarizes show trends, noting that 4-inch, 6-inch and other semiconductor wafers were everywhere, serving as a way to demonstrate mass-production capability.

Interview with Sunny Optics' Xiong Guanhao: Rebuilding the Value of Optics with "Optics + AI"

During CIOE 2026, Xiong Guanhao, Senior Director of Strategy and Marketing at Sunny Optics, said AI is moving from the cloud into the physical world, while optics is evolving from an imaging tool into a gateway through which AI acquires information, understands the world and transmits data.

Optical Waveguide Technologies Classified: Five Routes and Five Physical Logics

The article groups AR optical waveguides into three major categories and five technology routes: geometric, diffractive (including SRG, VHG and PVG) and metasurface. Each relies on different optical principles, performance limits and industrialization timelines, and the article argues that no single solution fits all applications.

LightCounting: NPO Is Hot, but Pluggables Remain the Market Mainstay

LightCounting's latest quarterly report says NPO dominated much of the discussion at the recent CIOE, much like the industry's enthusiasm for LPO a few years ago. However, sales of retimed pluggable optical modules continue to hit new highs, with Ethernet optical modules accounting for the majority of overall sales.

Why Are AI Glasses Dropping Cameras Again?

An article by VR Tuoluo uses Apple's iPhone Duo and its trade-offs in a foldable form factor as an example to analyze how AI glasses are shifting from adding features to subtraction: for hardware worn close to the body for long periods, removing cameras can deliver lighter weight and fewer privacy concerns.

CIOE's Hidden Star: Optical Interconnect Testing Gets Repriced

C114 Insight notes that at CIOE 2026, optical module makers are competing on 1.6T, 3.2T and 6.4T speeds, while test and measurement is another crowded arena. Lianxun Instruments, which listed on the STAR Market this April, saw its shares reach a high of 2777.77 yuan within three months of its debut, making it the most expensive stock on the A-share market. The company supplies test equipment for optical modules and CPO optical engines.

CIOE 2026 Observations: Why NPO Is the Optimal Choice for Cloud Giants

The 27th CIOE drew nearly 190,000 visits over three days, up 32% year on year. NPO (near-package optics) products from major domestic optical module makers made a concentrated appearance. NPO moves the optical engine from the switch front panel to near the ASIC package without soldering it to the switch chip, balancing power consumption and serviceability.

China Telecom's Zhang Dezhi: The 50G-PON Industry Chain Is Fully Mature

Zhang Dezhi, director of the optical access network center at China Telecom Research Institute, told the CIOE forum that the 50G-PON industry chain is fully mature and AI-based intrinsic intelligence in optical access networks is developing rapidly. He also outlined the path for upgrading the massive installed base of EPON terminals to 10 Gbit/s.

YOFC on New Optical Fiber Applications for AI Scale

At the AI + New Optical Fiber Applications Forum at CIOE, YOFC presented the accelerating use of various new optical fibers in AI computing scenarios, arguing that fiber's ultra-high bandwidth and ultra-low latency have made it the core transmission medium for AI computing infrastructure.

Eye Tracking, ToF, AI Glasses: The Commercialization Path for Metalenses Becomes Clearer

An article by VR Tuoluo notes that metalenses had a noticeably stronger presence at CIOE 2026, with NIL Technology showcasing metaEye for AR/VR eye tracking. The article maps out the application paths for metalenses in eye tracking, ToF and AI glasses.

CIOE 2026 Observations: MicroLED Optical Interconnects Move from Chips to Systems

C114 reviews MicroLED optical interconnect solutions at CIOE 2026, where progress from chips to systems has become a representative of the slow-and-wide route for intelligent computing networks.

Eoptolink's Zhang Jinshuang: Pluggable Optical Modules Remain the Absolute Mainstay

Speaking at the CIOE forum, Eoptolink's Zhang Jinshuang said that multiple high-speed optical interconnect technology paths will coexist, while pluggable optical modules remain the absolute mainstay.

Baidu's Wan Yi: AI Cluster Optical Networks Evolve Along Two Main Lines, with NPO Scaling First

Speaking at the CIOE forum, Baidu optical network architect Wan Yi said that Scale-Up and Scale-Out will evolve along two parallel main lines, with NPO being the first to achieve large-scale deployment.

Optical Waveguide Capacity of 7 Million Units/Year: How Many AR Glasses Can Sell?

China's planned diffractive optical waveguide capacity is nearly 7 million units per year, while Runto data show that China sold 408,000 AR glasses in the first half of 2026, up 109.4% year on year, indicating a clear mismatch between capacity and demand.

CAICT's Zhao Wenyu: NPO Commercial Deployment Imminent

Zhao Wenyu of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) said at the CIOE forum that commercial deployment of NPO is imminent and that it is the preferred solution for current AI computing infrastructure.

Alibaba Cloud's Chen Qin: NPO Is the Optimal Solution; Next Year's Optical Module Deployments Will Exceed the All-Time Total

Chen Qin of Alibaba Cloud outlined the evolution from 3.2T NPO to 6.4-12.8T UPO at the CIOE forum, saying that next year's optical module deployments will exceed the cumulative total of all previous years.

Huawei's Luo Jun Explains the Overall Vision for AIDC Networks

Huawei Fellow Luo Jun presented the AIDC network concept at the CIOE forum, proposing compute space data in space, compute ground data on the ground, and space-ground coordination.

Tencent's Zou Xianneng: NPO Will Ramp Up Quickly, OCS Poised for Large-Scale Deployment

Speaking at the CIOE forum, Tencent's Zou Xianneng said NPO will ramp up quickly and OCS is poised for large-scale deployment.

RUNTO: AR Glasses Split into AI HUD and Cinema/Spatial Computing Camps

In the first half of 2026, China's smart glasses sold 909,000 units across all channels, up 85.5% year over year, with sales revenue of RMB 1.88 billion. AR glasses are splitting into lightweight AI HUD models and large-screen cinema/spatial computing models.

Omdia: AI Compute Interconnect Drives Optical Network Market to 25-Year High

Omdia's Ian Redpath said optical networking has entered an AI infrastructure supercycle, with market size reaching a 25-year high.

Optical Interconnect Watch: Why OCS Became the Focus of CIOE

C114 explains the principles and industry landscape of optical circuit switches (OCS) and why they became a highlight of CIOE.