On April 2nd, smart glasses company Xreal submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As the first domestic and globally leading smart glasses company to pursue a Hong Kong IPO, once the hearing is completed, Xreal is expected to become the “world’s first smart glasses stock.”

Xreal’s global business is highly developed, with overseas revenue accounting for over 70% in 2025, and a sales network covering 40 countries and regions.

Revenue exceeds 500 million, with a total loss of 2 billion over three years

Xreal was founded in January 2017 by Zhejiang University alumni Xu Chi, Xiao Bing, and Wu Kejian. Its core business is designing, developing, manufacturing, and selling AR glasses under its own brand, along with related products and services.

Financial data shows that from 2023 to 2025, XREAL’s revenue reached 390 million yuan, 394 million yuan, and 516 million yuan respectively, with losses of 882 million yuan, 709 million yuan, and 456 million yuan, totaling a loss of 2 billion yuan over three years. The company’s product sales are mainly targeted at overseas markets. In 2025, overseas and mainland China revenues accounted for 71% and 29%, respectively.

In terms of R&D investment, Xreal is characterized by high input. Between 2023 and 2025, investments were 215.9 million yuan, 200 million yuan, and 182.9 million yuan. R&D expenditure as a percentage of total revenue decreased from 55.3% in 2023 to 35.5% in 2025, a ratio significantly higher than the industry average for consumer electronics (about 5–15%).

Although the absolute amount of R&D investment remains high, the faster growth in revenue (total revenue increased by 30.8% year-over-year in 2025) has optimized the R&D intensity (R&D expenditure/total revenue).

Since launching its first commercialized consumer AR glasses Light series in 2019, Xreal’s revenue last year reached 516 million yuan, and it has established partnerships with global giants such as Google, Bose, and Sony.

The prospectus shows that Xreal’s product lines can be summarized into three main series: the Air series, the One series, and the Light-Ultra-Aura product line. According to iResearch, based on sales revenue, Xreal has ranked first globally in the AR glasses market from 2022 to 2025.

Based on chart annotations, the companies following closely in market share are likely Viture (Traveler Unlimited), Rokid, Thunder Bird Innovation, and Meta.

Based on 2025 sales revenue, Xreal ranks second globally in the entire smart glasses market, including AR glasses and non-display glasses, and first in China. The companies following it, estimated by annotations, are Xiaomi (E) and Huawei (F).

Xreal revealed that the company continues to iterate and launch new products across three product lines. In 2026, it plans to release several new products: a gaming co-branded ROG XREAL R1 in collaboration with ASUS ROG; Project Helen, a more affordable and broadly targeted version of the Air series; and the next-generation flagship Project Aura, jointly developed with Google based on the AndroidXR platform. These new products will further cover high-end, mid-range, and entry-level markets.

Although Xreal is a global leader in AR, it still faces severe challenges. The prospectus mentions that the AR industry is still in its early stages, with uncertain market acceptance, long education cycles, immature content ecology, and user stickiness issues.

Tech giants like Meta, Apple (Vision Pro), Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Samsung have entered the market, making competition extremely fierce.

Additionally, the prospectus states that Xreal is currently involved in patent infringement lawsuits against competitors, which are still under trial.

Xu Chi owns 28%, IPO valuation is 5.7 billion

According to Cailian Press, prior to listing, Xreal completed multiple rounds of financing, with investors including Alibaba Group, Kuaishou, iQiyi, and other internet companies, as well as consumer electronics manufacturers like Luxshare Precision, international fashion eyewear brand Gentle Monster, and industry investors such as NIO Capital, Yunfeng Fund, Pudong Venture Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital, CICC Capital, Sequoia China, Hillhouse Ventures, Huachuang Capital, China Internet Investment Fund, Jinpu Investment, CPE Yuanfeng, Houxue Capital, and Wuxi New Investment.

In January this year, Xreal also completed Series D financing, attracting investments from Pudong Venture Capital and Luxshare Precision. Over its nine years, XREAL has completed nine rounds of financing, raising over 2.2 billion yuan, with post-investment valuation rising from 40 million yuan to 5.74 billion yuan.

The prospectus shows that the largest shareholder is founder Xu Chi and his controlling entities, holding a combined voting stake of 27.98%, maintaining control after listing.

Xu Chi, 41, is the company’s founder and chairman of the board. He graduated in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in electronic information engineering from Zhejiang University and earned a Ph.D. in electronic engineering from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in 2016. He previously worked at NVIDIA and Magic Leap, focusing on system architecture, augmented reality, and spatial computing.

Currently, Xreal has not disclosed specific fundraising amounts from the IPO. The company states that the funds will be used for hardware design and product upgrades, software development, device-side model deployment, and optical and display technology R&D. Additionally, part of the funds will be used to build about 10 new independent production lines for manufacturing the X-Prism optical engine, expanding overall capacity to meet current and future product demands. These new lines are expected to be completed and operational before 2031, with an annual capacity of approximately 810k units, supporting capacity expansion and market needs.

The growth potential of the smart glasses market continues to unfold. IDC forecasts that in 2026, China’s smart glasses shipment volume will reach 4.508 million units, a year-over-year increase of 77.7%. Among these, audio and audio-recording glasses are expected to ship 3.434 million units, up 68.1%, and AR/VR devices are projected to ship 8B units, up 62.1%.

Under the high industry prosperity, domestic smart glasses companies are accelerating their capitalization pace. In March this year, the smart glasses brand Rokid’s parent company Lingban Technology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. changed its business registration name from “Hangzhou Lingban Technology Co., Ltd.” to “Lingban Technology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd.” and changed its corporate type to a joint-stock company.

In November 2025, Thunder Bird Innovation announced the completion of Series C financing led by CITIC Jinshi, with participation from CITIC Securities International Capital and CITIC Securities Investment. In a interview last October, founder Li Hongwei predicted that the “iPhone moment” for AR glasses would occur between 2027 and 2028. He also revealed that Thunder Bird Innovation might go public before the arrival of the industry’s “iPhone moment.”

Source: Compiled from Xin Caifu Magazine, Shanghai Securities News, NetEase Tech, etc.

Editor: Cao Zhan

Proofreader: Zhi Yan