(Yicai) Oct. 29 -- Xreal, a leading Chinese maker of augmented reality glasses, has opened its global headquarters in Shanghai to oversee research, development, operations, and ecosystem building as well as help bring about the industry's “iPhone moment.”

Xreal will designate the city’s Pudong New Area as its center for innovation and pursue the integration of artificial intelligence and augmented reality, with the aim of making AR glasses the next-generation smart device that everyone can use, the Beijing-based firm said yesterday.

At the opening ceremony, founder and Chief Executive Xu Chi said he expects the AR industry’s “iPhone moment” -- a turning point that ushers in mass adoption and a tech revolution similar to that of Apple’s iPhone -- to come in 2027 or 2028, at which time smart glasses will be able to anticipate individual users’ needs.

Xu said that in the next two to three years the crucial components that will fuel AI-AR convergence — notably AI’s multimodal perception and long-term memory capabilities, improvements in hardware and supply chains, and the growth of an Agent-based ecosystem — will accelerate their maturation, setting the stage for a decade of strong growth in intelligent terminals.

The key factors that will fuel the integration of AI and AR over the next two to three years include AI's multimodal perception and long-term memory capabilities, improvements in hardware and supply chains, and the growth of an agent-based ecosystem, Xu said. This will open a golden decade of smart terminals, he added.

Xu’s timeline fits with a recent Shanghai government action plan. Published on Oct. 14, the plan targets and intelligent device sector in the city worth more than CNY300 billion (USD42.3 billion) by 2027, while fostering at least three globally influential consumer device brands and nurturing two industry-leading companies.

The plan further states that Shanghai will strongly back the development of the smart glasses industry, including promoting different types of AR, mixed reality, and virtual reality products, developing a number of consumer terminal brands with global influence, and forming a complete product matrix encompassing consumers, companies, and professionals.

Founded in 2017, Xreal has ranked first in the global consumer AR glasses market since 2022, according to data from market research firm International Data Corporation. Its shipments surged 114 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, leading the market with a 36 percent share.

State-owned Pudong Venture Capital Group announced an CNY200 million (USD28.2 million) investment in Xreal in March and confirmed incentives that successfully lured the business to set up its global HQ in Pudong New Area.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev