Hangzhou, China – July 28, 2025 – Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba today announced its ambitious plan to launch AI-powered smart glasses, dubbed AI Quark. This move marks Alibaba’s inaugural foray into the smart glasses product category, a significant step that tech analysts are hailing as a breakthrough for the company.
The AI Quark smart glasses are slated for release in the Chinese market by late 2025. The hardware will be powered by Alibaba’s own Qwen large language model and will feature an advanced AI assistant named Quark. This integration underscores Alibaba’s commitment to leveraging its robust AI capabilities in its new hardware ventures.
Headquartered in Hangzhou, China, Alibaba has solidified its position as one of the country’s foremost AI companies. The e-commerce behemoth has been aggressively introducing new products designed to compete with Western rivals, including AI pioneers like OpenAI.
Many technology firms view wearable devices, particularly smart glasses, as the next frontier in computing, potentially succeeding smartphones as the primary personal device. The Quark AI assistant, which received an update earlier this year, is currently available as an application in China. Alibaba’s push into hardware, therefore, represents a strategic move to broaden the distribution and accessibility of its AI applications.
Financial Performance and Market Competition
Alibaba recently reported strong financial results, with revenues reaching 236.45 billion yuan (approximately $32.8 billion USD) for the period of January to March 2025. This represents a healthy 7% increase compared to the same period last year. Net income for Alibaba surged to 29.85 billion yuan, marking a substantial 22% rise year-over-year from 2024.
Analysts suggest that the AI Quark smart glasses are Alibaba’s direct response to Meta’s smart glasses, which were developed in collaboration with eyewear brand Ray-Ban. This new product also positions the Chinese tech titan to compete head-to-head with consumer electronics manufacturer Xiaomi in the smart wearables market.
Features and Ecosystem Integration
Alibaba has revealed that its AI smart glasses will offer a range of functionalities designed to enhance user convenience and connectivity. These features include hands-free calling, online music streaming, real-time language translation, and meeting recording. The glasses will also come equipped with an integrated camera, opening up possibilities for various augmented reality and visual AI applications.
Beyond these core features, the AI Quark smart glasses are designed to seamlessly integrate with Alibaba’s extensive ecosystem of services in China. This includes everything from maps to online travel agencies. Users will be able to utilize navigation services directly through the glasses, make payments via Alipay (operated by Alibaba’s affiliate Ant Group), and even compare prices on Taobao, Alibaba’s popular e-commerce platform in China. This deep integration aims to provide a comprehensive and interconnected user experience, leveraging Alibaba’s existing digital infrastructure.
However, Alibaba has yet to disclose further details regarding the pricing and technical specifications of the AI Quark smart glasses. More information is anticipated as the late 2025 launch date approaches.
