Shares of EssilorLuxottica, the maker of Ray-Ban, surged 14% on Friday, hitting an all-time high and adding nearly US $20 billion in market value. The rally followed explosive investor enthusiasm over the company’s AI-powered Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, a product line that’s rapidly becoming a major growth engine.
The Paris-listed eyewear giant, founded by the late Leonardo Del Vecchio and currently seen as a potential buyer of fashion house Armani, reported its best quarterly results ever. Third-quarter sales climbed 11.7% from a year earlier to €6.9 billion (US $8.1 billion), beating analyst expectations and underscoring strong global demand for its wearable products.
While smart glasses currently represent only a small portion of EssilorLuxottica’s overall revenue, their impact is outsized. CFO Stefano Grassi revealed that AI-powered glasses alone added more than four percentage points to sales growth. Soaring demand has already prompted the company to speed up production capacity expansion ahead of schedule. Barclays analysts have called smart glasses potentially “the most disruptive innovation since mobile phones,” predicting 60 million units could be sold globally by 2035.
The stock’s 13.8% jump by mid-afternoon marked EssilorLuxottica’s biggest single-day gain since 2008, pushing its market capitalization to €126.5 billion. The rally also boosted the Stoxx Europe Luxury 10 index by more than 7% for the week — its strongest weekly performance since January.
The newest Ray-Ban Meta models, priced between US $379 and $799, feature built-in displays and upgraded generative AI functions. Currently sold in select stores, the glasses will roll out to Canada, France, Italy, and the U.K. in early 2026. The success has reignited interest in the once-abandoned smart eyewear space, with Google, Samsung, and Apple all re-entering development.
Analysts are now revising forecasts upward. J.P. Morgan called the glasses a “material growth driver,” while Equita raised its annual wearable revenue projection, expecting an extra €1 billion in sales this year. The strong third-quarter performance and confident outlook for the rest of the year signal that EssilorLuxottica’s strategic bet on wearables is paying off in a big way.