On September 12, Conant Optics hosted an unveiling and ribbon-cutting ceremony at its production facility in Qidong, Jiangsu. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, previously known as Jiangsu Lantu Optics Co., Ltd., was officially rebranded as Jiangsu Conant Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. This move finalized both industrial and commercial registration changes and marked a significant business repositioning. The company is now fully committed to its new smart glasses venture.

This renaming is far more than a superficial change. Prior to this, the company had acquired the remaining 51% stake in the former Jiangsu Lantu, achieving complete ownership. It also expanded its business scope to encompass the production of wearable smart devices, virtual reality equipment, and optical technology R&D.

To appreciate the significance of transforming a traditional lens production base—with a substantial annual output capacity—into a dedicated platform for smart glasses, one must consider the industry’s explosive growth.

The industry is at a turning point. 2026 is widely regarded as a critical year for AI glasses, transitioning from conceptual validation to large-scale market acceleration. According to IDC data, global smart glasses shipments reached 3.566 million units in the first quarter of 2026, up 130.1% year-on-year.

Policy support is also strong. In 2026, the new "national subsidy" policy included smart glasses in the subsidy scope for the first time, placing them alongside mobile phones, tablets, and smartwatches as one of the four major subsidized categories. The surge in the end-user market has directly fueled demand for upstream core optical components, with optical lenses being one of the most technically challenging and supply-constrained segments in the current industrial chain.

Conant has demonstrated the market’s potential through its financial performance. In the first half of 2026, the company’s XR business revenue surged to approximately 50.5 million yuan, up 1,475.3% year-on-year and 89% quarter-on-quarter. Moreover, the company has collaborated on over 40 projects with around 20 leading domestic and international smart glasses manufacturers, signed long-term R&D or procurement framework agreements with key clients, and secured exclusive partnerships with two domestic customers.

In July, the company further revealed that it had signed cooperation R&D or procurement framework agreements with four leading international and domestic tech companies and consumer electronics giants, becoming the designated core lens supplier for their main smart glasses products.

Production capacity expansion is at the heart of this unveiling. According to the company’s plan, the total area of the supporting factories for the new smart glasses business will be no less than 100,000 square meters, aiming to establish a high-end XR lens precision manufacturing system that integrates R&D, pilot production, and mass production.

The Jiangsu base has commenced factory renovations and upgrades for the XR Phase II and Phase III production lines, while the Shanghai factory is constructing four new lens bonding and complete device packaging production lines. The company plans to set up a dedicated production capacity system capable of manufacturing 3 million to 5 million high-precision AR glasses lenses annually by 2028, covering the entire manufacturing chain, including high-refractive-index ultra-thin prescription lenses, lens bonding, and complete device packaging.

Conant’s confidence in large-scale expansion stems from its three decades of accumulated optical manufacturing expertise. As the world’s second-largest resin lens manufacturer by production volume, the company’s process accumulations in precision molds, free-form surface processing, and irregular injection molding form natural barriers to entry.

In terms of industrial chain synergy, Conant has continuously strengthened upstream and downstream collaboration through strategic investments in Lingban Technology (Rokid) and the establishment of a joint venture with Goertek Optics. The joint venture with Goertek Optics focuses on the R&D and production of custom lenses for smart glasses, waveguide eyepieces, and electrochromic and eye-tracking optoelectronic components.

From "selling lenses" to "selling solutions," and from traditional optical manufacturing to a precision optical platform company, Conant Optics’ strategic upgrade path is clear. With the mass production of key overseas projects and the steady progress of new product supply for domestic major clients in the second half of the year, the XR business is accelerating from a secondary growth curve to becoming the core driver.

The upgrade of the Jiangsu base is not only a strategic production capacity arrangement but also a key move for the company to solidify its first-mover advantage in the smart glasses supply chain.