Google is trying to steal the Ray-Ban partnership from Meta

Meta is planning to spend billions to buy roughly 5 percent of ​​EssilorLuxottica, the €88 billion European eyewear giant it has collaborated with on two generations of Ray-Ban smart glasses. The Financial Times and other outlets earlier reported news of the talks, which I’ve also confirmed. I’m told the negotiations are advanced and it’s likely Meta will make the investment.

It turns out that Meta isn’t the only big tech company trying to get closer to EssilorLuxottica, however. Google recently approached the company’s leadership about putting its Gemini AI assistant in future smart glasses, several people familiar with the matter tell me. This move to potentially box Meta out of the high-profile partnership could be helping drive the large investment Mark Zuckerberg is now preparing to make. But there’s more to the situation to consider.

EssilorLuxottica is a European fashion and retail conglomerate, not a Silicon Valley company with investors who have an appetite for risk. A combination of global inflation and higher costs has also been hurting EssilorLuxottica’s profit margin for some time. The company’s stock price is up only about 7 percent in the last year, underperforming the overall growth of its peer group of European blue chip stocks.