While most of us think about virtual reality (VR) when it comes to reality-warping technology, augmented reality (AR) gets a lot less interest. But this reliable, down-to-earth cousin of virtual reality is driving a lot of interest in the tech sector. Social media giant Meta Platforms (META) has its own product on this front, but plenty of competitors are pushing to get in as well. Meta stock is up over 1.5% in Monday afternoon’s trading despite the tightening market.
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Goldman Sachs analysts recently considered the market for smart glasses, and discovered that it was a market with a lot more players in it than seen previously. And that, in turn, is going to do great things for the supply chain of said devices. One company, Shanghai-listed OmniVision, makes the display for the Meta glasses using a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) technology. Not only is this material lower-cost than both Micro LED and Micro OLED, but it also offers higher “color purity.”
And with companies from Alibaba (BABA) to Xiaomi (XIACF) getting in on the action to one extent or another, it will mean that Meta is likely to see a lot of competition. But suppliers in the market will also be able to take advantage of economies of scale, as they will likely be able to supply more than one company at a time with components for smart glasses.
“Fewer Conversations”
Meanwhile, following word of new cuts set to hit, the letter that came along with these cuts also leaked out. Written by former Scale CEO Alexandr Wang, now chief AI officer at Meta, had to say in that letter was stark. Meta recently dropped another 600 employees from the Meta Superintelligence Labs division, which handles Meta’s moves into the artificial intelligence space.
The letter from Wang noted, “Earlier today, we made some changes to MSL to move us toward being the most agile and talent-dense team in the industry. By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact.” Wang also noted that a “tiger team of recruiters” had been called in to help the displaced find new work.
Is Meta Platforms a Buy, Sell or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on META stock based on 41 Buys and six Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 27.71% rally in its share price over the past year, the average META price target of $878.09 per share implies 16.76% upside potential.
