Meta Platforms Inc is in talks to take a minority stake in the maker of Ray-Ban sunglasses as the Facebook owner intensifies its push into smart glasses.

Meta, which has collaborated with EssilorLuxottica SA on Ray Ban-Meta smart eyewear, is considering a stake of more than 3% and as much as 5% in the luxury eyewear group, which would be valued at about €4.5bil at current prices, according to people familiar with the discussions, who asked not to be identified because the information is not public. There is no guarantee that an investment will take place, they said.

A spokesperson for Meta didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for EssilorLuxottica declined to comment. The Financial Times reported the talks earlier.

Meta has already received clearance from US antitrust authorities to buy a minority stake of as much as 5%, according to two people familiar with the deal. The US Federal Trade Commission declined to comment.

By taking a stake in EssilorLuxottica, the social media giant would deepen its partnership with the world’s biggest eyewear company. It would also presumably gain more influence over a business that’s key to its virtual and augmented reality efforts and strengthen its position against rivals. Snap Inc has been experimenting with mixed-reality spectacles for years while Apple Inc released the Vision Pro headset earlier this year.

As yet, consumers haven’t adopted these technologies en masse.

This wouldn’t be the first company that Meta has taken a stake in. Four years ago, the social-media giant announced that it would buy about 10% of Reliance Industries Ltd’s Jio Platforms, becoming its largest minority shareholder with a US$5.7bil investment. That partnership came as chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg was working to step up his expansion in India, where online payment and ecommerce demand was exploding as more people used smartphones.

Meta has heavily invested in the metaverse - a future version of the internet made up of immersive worlds accessible via headsets - which Zuckerberg has hailed as the next major computing revolution after mobile phones. The company changed its name from Facebook to Meta years ago to underscore the dedication to the concept.

“Meta is likely doubling down on its AR and smart-glasses bet with its new new stake in EssilorLuxottica, given it doesn’t own the hardware platform as is the case with Oculus VR. We believe AR units, about 10-15x smaller than VR in terms of units shipped, could grow at a much faster rate than VR given the potential to have smart glasses as an inference device for gen-AI and virtual-assistant functionality,” said Bloomberg Intelligence senior tech analysts Mandeep Singh and Nishant Chintala.

Meta unveiled its first Ray-Ban smart glasses in partnership with EssilorLuxottica in 2021. Those glasses were set on the Wayfarer frame to let users take photos and videos, listen to music and answer calls. Newer glasses incorporate MetaAI, an AI assistant based on its Llama artificial intelligence model.

EssilorLuxottica on Wednesday announced an agreement to buy streetwear label Supreme from VF Corp for US$1.5bil in cash, adding another lifestyle brand to a stable that also includes Oakley sunglasses.

 - Bloomberg