Ray-Ban Maker EssilorLuxottica Shares Hit Record High as Investors Bet on Meta AI Glasses Boom

PARIS October 18, 2025 Shares of EssilorLuxottica, the French-Italian eyewear giant behind Ray-Ban, soared 14% on Friday to reach an all-time high, adding nearly $20 billion in market value. The rally came as investors piled into the stock on growing excitement over the company’s latest collaboration with Meta Platforms, which has turned its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses into one of the most talked-about consumer tech products of the year.

A surge driven by AI-powered eyewear

The latest model of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, launched in partnership with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s team, has become the breakout success of 2025’s wearable tech market. The glasses, which integrate Meta’s AI assistant, real-time translation, and multimodal vision recognition, are being praised for blending cutting-edge technology into a familiar lifestyle product, a stark contrast to the futuristic look of earlier smart glasses like Google Glass or Snap Spectacles.

According to market analysts, the wearable has quickly moved beyond the niche tech crowd to attract mainstream consumers. Retailers have reported sellouts across key markets, and Meta’s online store has introduced waitlists for certain styles and colors.

“The first truly social wearable”

The Ray-Ban Meta glasses represent Meta’s most successful hardware launch since the Oculus Quest 2. The devices let users capture photos, record short videos, and, thanks to Meta’s Llama 3 AI model, ask contextual questions about what they’re seeing. For example, wearers can ask, “What building am I looking at?” or “Translate this sign into English,” and receive instant responses through the built-in voice assistant.

The technology’s combination of style, utility, and AI integration has led to glowing early reviews. Influencers and reviewers have called it “the first smart glasses that actually make sense for daily life.”

Market reaction and valuation leap

EssilorLuxottica’s shares surged to over €240 ($255) on the Paris exchange, setting a record for the eyewear conglomerate. The one-day jump of nearly 14% represented a $20 billion market-cap increase, pushing the company’s valuation above $160 billion.

Investment banks including Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas upgraded their ratings on EssilorLuxottica, citing “robust demand trajectory” and “the dawn of an AI-driven eyewear category.” Analysts noted that while Meta’s name has driven much of the hype, EssilorLuxottica stands to benefit most from the manufacturing, branding, and retail distribution sides of the partnership.

“This is no longer just about fashion, it’s about the convergence of tech and lifestyle,” said Andrea Romagnoli, senior analyst at Jefferies.
“EssilorLuxottica is emerging as the Apple of eyewear, controlling both the product’s design and its customer experience.”

Meta’s hardware comeback

For Meta, the collaboration marks a major turnaround in its hardware ambitions. After years of mixed results with AR and VR devices, the company appears to have found a winning formula by embedding AI into everyday accessories. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the new Ray-Ban Meta glasses “the most natural way to bring AI into the real world.”

The success is also a strategic win for Meta’s long-term metaverse vision, allowing it to build an ecosystem of connected devices that feed into its AI models, without the need for bulky headsets.

A new frontier: AI meets fashion

EssilorLuxottica’s partnership with Meta is reshaping the conversation around wearable computing. Instead of focusing on productivity or gaming, these smart glasses aim to enhance social interaction, creativity, and real-world context awareness.

The company plans to release additional models in 2026, expanding into prescription variants and new luxury collaborations. Industry insiders expect the next generation to integrate eye-tracking sensors and real-time health monitoring, further merging fashion, wellness, and AI.

Bottom line

EssilorLuxottica’s record-breaking rally underscores a broader shift in investor sentiment: the next big tech platform may not be a phone or a headset, but something you wear on your face.

As Meta’s AI glasses gain momentum and public adoption grows, the eyewear giant behind the iconic Ray-Ban brand has positioned itself at the center of one of the most promising frontiers in consumer technology.

With AI, style, and mainstream appeal finally aligned, EssilorLuxottica’s vision for the future has never looked clearer.