AR global market leader to increase investment in Shanghai
Editor's note:
Shanghai, a well-established destination for investment from home and abroad, is confident it will attract more quality investment thanks to better policies and services.
XREAL, a China-based augmented reality (AR) device maker, plans to increase investment in Shanghai and expects "three-digit" sales growth this year, fueled by the wave of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and spiritual computing, company founder and chief executive Xu Chi said on Friday.
XREAL signed an agreement with the Pudong New Area to increase investment in Shanghai. It's one of the 21 project deals signed on-site during the Shanghai Global Investment Promotion Conference 2024 on Friday, with a total investment of 52.4 billion yuan (US$7.3 billion).
XREAL's Xu (third from the left) is attending a signing ceremony in the Shanghai investment conference.
XREAL will increase its layout and investment in Shanghai, covering research and internalization. Shanghai's advantages lie in its collaborative industrial chain, globalized talent resource and geographical location. A few more hundred-billion-dollar Metaverse enterprises will appear in Shanghai in the future, Xu told Shanghai Daily on the sidelines of the conference.
In 2023, XREAL had a 45.2 percent share in the global AR market, surpassing that of Microsoft, according to researcher International Data Corp or IDC.
In 2024, its sales will experience "three-digit" growth amid the wave of Metaverse and spiritual computing, a technology adopted by Apple's Vision Pro.
The growing generative AI, which helps people create diversified and more vivid digital realms, will boost the AR device market.
"AR is the best vehicle for AI and AI is the best way to interact with AR," Xu said in the interview.
In January, the company secured a new round of investment worth US$60 million.
AR and Metaverse are regarded as new quality productive forces, and a strategic development mode for Shanghai and China.
Shanghai is the first city nationwide to draft a long-term blueprint for the development of Metaverse applications, with AR and virtual reality (VR) as key techs. The city announced previously that it would boost the Metaverse industry, with its output expected to be 350 billion yuan in 2025.
