# Vuzix

> Source: https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/vuzix
> Updated: 2026-08-01
> Fact-checked: 2026-08-01
> Categories: AI Companies, Consumer AI Devices
> License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) - attribute to "AI Wiki (aiwiki.ai)"
> Cite as: AI Wiki. "Vuzix." aiwiki.ai, 1 Aug 2026. https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/vuzix
> From AI Wiki (https://aiwiki.ai), the free encyclopedia of artificial intelligence. Reuse freely with attribution.

**Vuzix Corporation** (NASDAQ: VUZI) is an American maker of [waveguide](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/waveguide_display) optics and enterprise smart glasses, incorporated in Delaware in 1997 and operated from West Henrietta, New York, which the 10-K calls a suburb of Rochester and which the company's own press-release datelines and marketing pages give simply as Rochester [1][4][10]. Among companies whose whole business is smart glasses and their optics, Vuzix has the longest public financial record: it has filed an audited Form 10-K every year since fiscal 2009 [2]. Since 2024 it has been repositioning from a device brand into an optics supplier, selling waveguides, display engines and reference designs to other manufacturers rather than glasses to end users. Its homepage tagline as of 2026-08-02 is "The Optical Foundation for AI Smart Glasses" [3].

Vuzix matters less for its shipment volume, which is small, than for its disclosure. Because it reports under US securities law, its filings are the only long-run audited record of what building [AI glasses](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/ai_glasses) actually costs. For fiscal 2025 it reported revenue of $6,280,611, a gross loss of $1,062,394 and a net loss of $32,273,128 [1][4]. That was its third consecutive year of negative gross margin.

## Corporate history

Vuzix was incorporated in Delaware in 1997 as VR Acquisition Corp and immediately bought substantially all the assets of Forte Technologies, a [virtual reality](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/virtual_reality) headset maker previously owned and controlled by Kopin Corporation, one of Vuzix's early microdisplay suppliers [1]. Co-founder Paul Travers has been president and chief executive since 1997, and the 10-K identifies him as a key-person risk [1][29]. The other co-founder, Grant Russell, has been chief financial officer and executive vice president since 2000 [29].

The first two decades produced consumer and military video eyewear: the VFX1 and VFX3D headsets, the Tac-Eye military display, the AV and Wrap video glasses and the STAR 1200 see-through headset [5]. Vuzix went public in December 2009 and its shares began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange on 2010-01-05, closing that day at Cdn$0.175 [6]. US quotation was on the OTCQB until 2015-01-28, when the stock moved to the Nasdaq Capital Market [7].

The pivot toward head-worn computing began with the M100, announced in November 2012 as an Android-powered rival to [Google Glass](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/google_glass), with a 400x240 display and a 16-degree diagonal field of view [8]. The Blade followed at CES 2018 as a full-color waveguide display in an eyeglass frame, sold first as developer kits at roughly $2,000 with a $500 deposit [9]. Neither reached consumer scale, and Vuzix settled into industrial and medical deployments while [Microsoft HoloLens](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/microsoft_hololens) and [Magic Leap](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/magic_leap) chased the higher end of [augmented reality](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/augmented_reality).

The company had 88 full-time employees and contractors globally at 2025-12-31 and operates from leased buildings at 25 Hendrix Road and 30 Becker Road in West Henrietta, plus offices in Japan [1][10].

## Financial record

The figures below are audited annual totals as presented in the fiscal 2025 Form 10-K, which carries all three years [1]. The measures are distinct and are routinely conflated: gross loss is revenue minus cost of sales, loss from operations adds research, selling and administrative expense, and net loss adds items outside operations.

| Fiscal year | Total revenue | Gross profit (loss) | Loss from operations | Net loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | $12,129,139 | $(2,634,730) | $(52,301,539) | $(50,149,077) |
| 2024 | $5,754,556 | $(5,599,670) | $(73,971,494) | $(73,538,157) |
| 2025 | $6,280,611 | $(1,062,394) | $(32,507,894) | $(32,273,128) |

Revenue fell 53% between 2023 and 2024, driven by product sales dropping from $10,760,352 to $4,487,202 [1]. Geography explains much of it: Japan alone supplied $4,449,000 of 2023 revenue, 37% of the total, and $333,000 in 2025 [1]. The 2024 net loss was inflated by a $30,301,355 impairment of the unamortized Atomistic SAS technology license and Vuzix's equity stake in that company, after Vuzix stopped funding the microLED program on 2024-06-30 and Atomistic terminated the license the next day [1]. A separate $2,136,993 write-off of intangible assets and goodwill in 2023 related to the earlier Moviynt acquisition [1].

The negative gross margin deserves precision. In 2025 the product cost of sales line, which the filing defines as direct costs plus the manufacturing overhead actually allocated to production, was $3,269,267 against product revenue of $4,676,632, and engineering services cost $671,571 against $1,603,979 of services revenue [1]. What pushes the line negative is everything layered on top: $2,220,836 of unapplied manufacturing overhead, meaning factory cost that production volume was too low to absorb, a $503,400 inventory obsolescence provision, and $677,931 of depreciation and amortization inside cost of sales [1]. Vuzix is therefore not straightforwardly selling each unit below its bill of materials. It is running a plant far below the volume that would cover its fixed cost, and periodically writing down parts for models it expects to replace. The 2024 gross loss was dominated by one $4,167,917 obsolescence provision [1].

Quarterly results show the trend inside 2025 [1]:

| Quarter (2025) | Revenue | Gross profit (loss) | Net loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | $1,581,000 | $(265,000) | $(8,638,000) |
| Q2 | $1,296,000 | $(761,000) | $(7,666,000) |
| Q3 | $1,161,000 | $(411,000) | $(7,354,000) |
| Q4 | $2,243,000 | $375,000 | $(8,615,000) |

Q4 2025 was the first quarter of positive gross profit since Q2 2023, helped by $832,000 of engineering services revenue from defense and security customers [1][4]. The improvement did not carry: for the quarter ended 2026-03-31 Vuzix reported revenue of $1,391,324, down 12% year on year, a gross loss of $377,911 and a net loss of $7,071,324, or $0.09 per share [11]. Second-quarter 2026 results were scheduled for release on 2026-08-13 and were not public as of 2026-08-02 [33].

Cash and equivalents were $21,150,213 at 2025-12-31 and $20,167,137 at 2026-03-31, with no debt outstanding [1][11]. Operating cash burn was $18,789,272 in 2025, $23,739,372 in 2024 and $26,277,824 in 2023, against an accumulated deficit of $399,858,410 [1]. Management wrote that these historical financial factors "initially raise doubt" about the company's ability to continue as a going concern, then concluded that substantial doubt "has been alleviated" by its operating plans and its history of raising capital [1]. That capital comes largely from an at-the-market equity program: Vuzix has sold $28,250,484 of stock net of fees since May 2024 under a $50 million shelf, and shares outstanding rose from 75,974,022 at 2024-12-31 to 83,158,258 at 2026-03-31 [1][11].

Customer concentration is high. In 2025 two customers accounted for 25% and 11% of product revenue, four for 50%, 17%, 11% and 11% of engineering services revenue, and two for 55% and 35% of year-end accounts receivable [1].

## Products

Vuzix discloses no unit numbers in its filings: the strings "units sold", "units shipped" and "unit shipments" appear nowhere in the fiscal 2025 10-K or the Q1 2026 10-Q, and neither document carries a shipment count of any kind. The only figure the company publishes is a marketing one, "100,000+" headworn systems shipped, a cumulative claim on its smart glasses page with no period, product split or audit behind it [30]. Product revenue of $4.68 million against the $1,499.99 M400, which the company names as the year's volume driver, implies annual volumes in the low thousands at most [1]. As of 2026-08-02 the store sold exactly two smart glasses, the M400 and the LX1; they are also the only two glasses in the vuzix.com product sitemap, every other entry in which is an accessory, a prescription insert, a warranty or branded merchandise [30][14].

| Product | Introduced | Status as of 2026-08-02 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| M400 | 2020 | On sale, $1,499.99 | Monocular occluded nHD OLED, Android, camera, [voice control](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/voice_assistant) [1][13] |
| M4000 | 2021 | Described in 10-K, not in store | Monocular see-through waveguide variant [1] |
| Blade 2 | 2022 | Product page redirects to a category page | Monocular full-color waveguide; only the $149.99 prescription insert remains listed [1][14] |
| Shield | 2023 | Described in 10-K, not in store | Binocular microLED, first binocular AR product [1] |
| Z100 | 2024-11-20 | Two former product URLs, both 301-redirecting away: one to the Ultralite OEM platform page, and the one printed in Vuzix's own launch release to the smart glasses category page | $499, 38g, monochrome waveguide, up to 48 hours [15] |
| LX1 | announced 2025-08-12 | On sale, $2,199.99 | Qualcomm QCS4490 8-core, 6GB LPDDR5, 128GB, Android 15, OLED above 2,000 nits, 7,000mAh, rated -20C to 45C [13][16] |

The LX1's dates need care because Vuzix's own disclosures differ. It was announced on 2025-08-12, to be manufactured by [Quanta Computer](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/quanta_computer) around a Sony Semiconductor Solutions color HD display, with availability then expected before the end of 2025 [27]. The 10-K says it was "first introduced in December 2025" and that Vuzix "did not begin selling until early 2026" [1]. FCC and CE certification and commercial shipments were announced on 2026-02-04 [16].

### Ultralite OEM platforms

The Ultralite line is sold to manufacturers rather than users, as reference designs developed with Quanta Computer; the 10-K dates the introduction of the Pro and Audio platforms to CES 2025 [1]. Vuzix's specification page lists three configurations [17]:

| Platform | Waveguide | Display | Processor (as listed by Vuzix) | Camera |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultralite Pro | CI-30 dual full-color | Dual full-color LCoS | Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 | Single camera with AI vision support |
| Ultralite Audio | MI-30 single monochrome | Single microLED projector | Bluetooth-connected mobile companion architecture | None |
| Ultralite HUD | MI-30 single monochrome | Single microLED projector | Bluetooth-connected mobile companion architecture | None |

Only the Pro carries an applications processor. The Audio and HUD platforms have no onboard compute and depend on a paired phone, the same architecture as the retail Z100. The Pro was named a CES 2026 Innovation Award honoree; Vuzix describes it as under 80 grams with a 30-degree field of view, an Avegant light engine and a magnesium frame, all vendor-reported and not independently measured [18]. The [Snapdragon AR1](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/snapdragon_ar1) part puts Vuzix on the same [Qualcomm](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/qualcomm) silicon used by [Meta's Ray-Ban glasses](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/meta_ray_ban_ai) and by Chinese entrants such as [Rokid](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/rokid).

## The waveguide business

Vuzix makes its waveguides in a cleanroom adjacent to its headquarters, having leased an additional 12,000 square feet at 30 Becker Road in October 2022 for the purpose [1]. Company materials claim roughly one million waveguides of annual capacity, ISO 9001:2015 certification, Class 1K and Class 10K cleanrooms and Tier-1 government contractor status; none of these are independently audited [10]. A California waveguide research facility opened in spring 2026 [1].

The off-the-shelf catalogue is four designs: C-40 and CV-40 at 40-plus degrees full color, the latter optimized for helmet mounting, plus the 30-degree CI-30 full color and MI-30 monochrome parts used in the Ultralite platforms [19]. Proprietary processes include Incognito, which reduces forward light leakage, and Micro-Touch imprinting, which Vuzix says lowers substrate stress enough to use ultra-thin glass and polymers; it puts its thinnest full-color configuration at under 0.75 mm and its production prescription range at +2D to -8D [1][19]. Patent counts conflict across Vuzix's own surfaces. The 10-K reports 306 issued US and foreign patents and 202 pending applications at 2025-12-31. Press-release boilerplate said "more than 450 patents and patents pending" through January 2026 and "more than 500" from March 2026, and the About page carries both "500+" and "well over 425 optical system patents" [1][12][20][31].

### Quanta Computer investment

The Taiwanese ODM Quanta Computer agreed on 2024-09-03 to invest up to $20 million. The structure was not four equal tranches, as sometimes reported, but $10 million of common stock followed by up to $10 million of Series B convertible preferred in two milestone-gated closings [1]:

| Closing | Date | Amount | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | 2024-09-13 | $10,000,000 | 7,692,307 common shares at $1.30 |
| Second | 2025-06-13 | $5,000,000 | 189,717 Series B preferred at $26.35, convertible into 1,897,170 common |
| Third | 2025-09-19 | $5,000,000 | 230,242 Series B preferred at $21.72, convertible into 2,302,420 common |

Vuzix said the later closings were released on achievement of yield and production run-rate targets [4][20]. Quanta vice chairman C.C. Leung said Vuzix "has made impressive strides in bringing waveguide technology into volume manufacturing" [20]. Quanta also manufactures the LX1 and a binocular reference design announced with Avegant at CES 2026 that pairs Avegant's 0.7 cc AG-30L3 LCoS light engine with Vuzix waveguides [21][27].

### Defense and OEM pipeline

Defense is where Vuzix's engineering services revenue increasingly comes from, though almost every announcement withholds the customer name and the contract value.

| Date | Announcement | Disclosed value |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-09-29 | Waveguide development order from "a leading U.S. defense contractor" for a lightweight military heads-up display | "Six-figure" [28] |
| 2025-12-19 | Collaboration with Collins Aerospace, an RTX business, for [waveguide display](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/waveguide_display) engines across US Department of Defense programs | Not disclosed [22] |
| 2026-03-31 | "Leading global online retail company" expands M400 deployment into North America and places initial Ultralite Pro OEM orders | Not disclosed [23] |
| 2026-04-06 | Follow-on production order shipped for a "major defense customer" | "Six-figure" [32] |
| 2026-04-28 | Customer-funded development order from a "leading tier-1 supplier of advanced aerospace and defense solutions" | "Six-figure" [24] |
| 2026-05-19 | CIV-40-2 waveguide shown at SOF Week 2026: full color, 40-degree field of view, HD, for vertical-mount head-mounted displays | Not applicable [12] |

Collins Aerospace is the only named integrator. Vuzix said the collaboration had reached production approval and delivery, enabling low-rate initial production and positioning both companies for projected full-rate production needs "beginning in 2026" [22]. The recurring "leading global online retailer" has never been identified in a Vuzix press release or SEC filing; "Amazon" appears zero times in the fiscal 2025 10-K and the Q1 2026 10-Q. Fourth-quarter 2025 shipments to that customer were described as approaching $1 million, roughly 16% of the year's revenue [25].

## Market position

Vuzix is not a volume participant in the consumer [AI glasses market](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/ai_glasses_market). Road to VR described it in 2025 as "the veteran smart glasses maker" while noting [Google](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/google)'s and Meta's announced moves into the category and reports that [Samsung](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/samsung) and Apple were preparing their own [26]. Vuzix's own 10-K lists Carl Zeiss, Seiko Epson, Sony, [Microsoft](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/microsoft), Apple, Avegant, Meta, HTC, Razer, HP, [Lenovo](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/lenovo), Snap, [XREAL](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/xreal), TCL and [Huawei](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/huawei) among its competitors [1]. Its realistic peer group is now optics suppliers rather than glasses brands, and its customers are OEMs, [enterprise](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/enterprise_ai) integrators and defense primes of the sort that also supply programs run by companies such as [Anduril](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/anduril).

What Vuzix has that no newer entrant does is a public financial record: seventeen consecutive audited annual reports, fiscal 2009 through fiscal 2025, are on file with the SEC [2]. Any claim that a recently founded smart-glasses company is the first in the segment to publish audited accounts is therefore wrong. The record is unflattering, which is the point of reading it. It shows a $399.9 million accumulated deficit spent building a hardware business that, at its 2025 scale, could not cover the cost of its own factory [1]. The features the industry now sells as AI, real-time [translation](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/machine_translation), [on-device](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/on_device_ai) assistants, camera-based [computer vision](https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/computer_vision) and barcode reading, have not yet changed that arithmetic at the one company in the category obliged to publish it.

## References

1. "Vuzix Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025." US Securities and Exchange Commission, 2026-03-12. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1463972/000110465926027163/vuzi-20251231x10k.htm
2. "Vuzix Corp EDGAR filing history (CIK 0001463972)." US Securities and Exchange Commission, accessed 2026-08-02. https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001463972.json
3. "Vuzix homepage." Vuzix Corporation, accessed 2026-08-02. https://www.vuzix.com/
4. "Vuzix Reports 2025 Financial Results and Positions Waveguide and OEM Businesses for Next Phase of Smart Glasses Growth." Vuzix Corporation, 2026-03-12. https://ir.vuzix.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/2166/vuzix-reports-2025-financial-results-and-positions
5. "Vuzix History." Vuzix Corporation, accessed 2026-08-02. https://www.vuzix.com/pages/history
6. "Vuzix Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2009." US Securities and Exchange Commission, 2010-03-31. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1463972/000114420410017600/v179459_10k.htm
7. "Vuzix Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015." US Securities and Exchange Commission, 2016-03-30. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1463972/000114420416091496/v435085_10k.htm
8. "Android-powered Vuzix M100 Smart Glasses to Compete with Google Glass in 2013." Road to VR, 2012-11-18. https://roadtovr.com/vuzix-m100-smart-glasses/
9. "Vuzix to Debut 'Blade' Smartglasses at CES Next Week." Road to VR, 2018-01-05. https://roadtovr.com/vuzix-debut-blade-ar-smart-glasses-ces-next-week/
10. "United States Manufacturing." Vuzix Corporation, accessed 2026-08-02. https://www.vuzix.com/pages/us-based-manufacturing
11. "Vuzix Corporation Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2026." US Securities and Exchange Commission, 2026-05-14. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1463972/000110465926061153/vuzi-20260331x10q.htm
12. "Vuzix Showcasing Advanced Waveguide Solutions for Defense and Tactical Operations During SOF Week 2026." Vuzix Corporation, 2026-05-19. https://ir.vuzix.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/2176/vuzix-showcasing-advanced-waveguide-solutions-for-defense
13. "Vuzix LX1 Smart Glasses product page." Vuzix Corporation, accessed 2026-08-02. https://www.vuzix.com/products/vuzix-lx1-smart-glasses
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16. "Vuzix Receives Broad FCC and CE Certification for Its LX1 Smart Glasses and Commences Immediate Customer Shipments." Vuzix Corporation, 2026-02-04. https://ir.vuzix.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/2163/vuzix-receives-broad-fcc-and-ce-certification-for-its-lx1
17. "Ultralite OEM Platform." Vuzix Corporation, accessed 2026-08-02. https://www.vuzix.com/pages/vuzix-ultralite-oem-platform
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19. "Vuzix Core Waveguides Configuration and Specifications." Vuzix Corporation, accessed 2026-08-02. https://www.vuzix.com/pages/waveguide-configurations
20. "Vuzix Achieves Waveguide Production Milestones and Receives Additional $5 Million Quanta Investment, Bringing Total Funding to $20 Million." Vuzix Corporation, 2025-09-22. https://ir.vuzix.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/2149/vuzix-achieves-waveguide-production-milestones-and-receives
21. "Avegant and Vuzix Announce New Lightweight Binocular AR Reference Design." Vuzix Corporation, 2026-01-06. https://ir.vuzix.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/2159/avegant-and-vuzix-announce-new-lightweight-binocular-ar
22. "Vuzix and Collins Aerospace Announce Strategic Collaboration to Scale Augmented Reality Defense Solutions." Vuzix Corporation, 2025-12-19. https://ir.vuzix.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/2157/vuzix-and-collins-aerospace-announce-strategic
23. "Leading Global Online Retailer Expands Vuzix Smart Glasses Deployment Across North America with Follow-On Orders and Initial Ultralite Pro OEM Program Orders." Vuzix Corporation, 2026-03-31. https://ir.vuzix.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/2167/leading-global-online-retailer-expands-vuzix-smart-glasses
24. "Vuzix Receives Customer-Funded Development Order from Leading Tier-1 Defense Supplier for Next-Generation Waveguide Display Program." Vuzix Corporation, 2026-04-28. https://ir.vuzix.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/2171/vuzix-receives-customer-funded-development-order-from
25. "Vuzix' 4Q25 Shipments of AI-Powered Smart Glasses to Leading Global Online Retailer Approach $1 Million." Vuzix Corporation, 2025-11-28. https://ir.vuzix.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/2156/vuzix-4q25-shipments-of-ai-powered-smart-glasses-to
26. "Vuzix Secures $5M Investment as Veteran Smart Glasses Maker Sets Sights on Consumers." Road to VR, 2025-06-17. https://roadtovr.com/vuzix-5m-investment-smart-glasses-competition/
27. "Vuzix Introduces LX1 Smart Glasses Designed Specifically for Warehouse Operations." Vuzix Corporation, 2025-08-12. https://ir.vuzix.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/2143/vuzix-introduces-lx1-smart-glasses-designed-specifically
28. "Vuzix Expands OEM Defense Program Base with New Six-Figure Waveguide Development Order from a Leading U.S. Defense Contractor." Vuzix Corporation, 2025-09-29. https://ir.vuzix.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/2151/vuzix-expands-oem-defense-program-base-with-new-six-figure
29. "Vuzix Corporation Definitive Proxy Statement (Schedule 14A) for the 2026 annual meeting." US Securities and Exchange Commission, 2026-04-28. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1463972/000110465926050404/tm2612064d1_def14a.htm
30. "Smart Glasses." Vuzix Corporation, accessed 2026-08-02. https://www.vuzix.com/pages/smart-glasses
31. "About Vuzix." Vuzix Corporation, accessed 2026-08-02. https://www.vuzix.com/pages/about-vuzix
32. "Vuzix Ships Follow-On Production Order from Major Defense Customer for Waveguide-Based AR Display Systems." Vuzix Corporation, 2026-04-06. https://ir.vuzix.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/2168/vuzix-ships-follow-on-production-order-from-major-defense
33. "Vuzix Schedules Conference Call to Discuss Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results and Business Update." Vuzix Corporation, 2026-07-30. https://ir.vuzix.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/2178/vuzix-schedules-conference-call-to-discuss-second-quarter