Even Realities Smart Glasses $150M Round July 2026: China's AI Wearable Unicorn and the Race to Replace Smartphones
Even Realities, a smart glasses startup founded by former Apple engineer Will Wang, raised $150 million in a pre-Series B round at a $1 billion valuation, making it China's newest AI wearable unicorn. The glasses use embedded waveguide display technology to look like regular eyewear while providing an AI assistant that can see your context and handle tasks hands-free. Covers the funding round details, the waveguide tech, the competitive landscape including Meta Ray-Ban and Apple's rumored AR glasses, and what AI wearables mean for the smartphone replacement thesis.
Even Realities, a smart glasses startup founded by former Apple engineer Will Wang, has raised $150 million in a pre-Series B funding round, pushing its valuation to $1 billion. The round makes Even Realities China's newest unicorn in one of tech's most contested hardware categories, AI-powered wearables designed to replace smartphones.
Who Is Even Realities?
Will Wang spent years at Apple working on display technology before leaving to start Even Realities. The company's thesis is straightforward: smartphones have plateaued. The next computing platform isn't a better rectangle in your pocket. It's something you wear on your face.
Even Realities' smart glasses look like regular prescription glasses, no bulky frames, no external battery packs, no obvious cameras. The display tech is embedded in the lens itself, a waveguide approach that Wang's team developed from scratch. The AI layer runs on-device for latency-sensitive tasks and connects to cloud models for heavier processing.
The $150M Round
The pre-Series B round drew backing from both Chinese and international investors, a notable combination in the current regulatory environment. The specific investor list hasn't been fully disclosed, but sources indicate a mix of hardware-focused VCs and strategic corporate investors from the consumer electronics supply chain.
At a $1 billion valuation, Even Realities joins a growing club of AI wearable unicorns. The category has attracted billions in venture capital over the past 18 months as investors bet that AI assistants need a form factor that can see what you see and hear what you hear, not just sit in your pocket.
The Competitive Landscape
Even Realities isn't alone. Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses have sold millions of units and continue to iterate. Apple is reportedly working on AR glasses with a target launch in 2027-2028. Multiple Chinese competitors, including Xreal and Rokid, are shipping products. The race is on to build the hardware that AI assistants live in.
The key differentiator for Even Realities is the "normal glasses" form factor. Most smart glasses on the market look like smart glasses, chunky temples, visible cameras, thicker frames. Even Realities' waveguide display approach allows the glasses to look essentially indistinguishable from regular eyewear. If they can deliver on the AI experience, that's a meaningful advantage.
What This Means
The smartphone replacement thesis is ambitious. Smart glasses have been "the next big thing" since Google Glass in 2013. But AI changes the equation. A useful on-face AI assistant, one that can see your context, answer questions without pulling out a phone, and handle tasks hands-free, is a fundamentally different product than a heads-up notification display.
$150 million at a $1B valuation says sophisticated investors believe this time is different.
