Exclusive Interview with Thunderbird Innovation CEO Li Hongwei: Telecom Giants Bet on the Next Generation "Mobile Phones"

Author | Huang Yu Editor | Zhou Zhiyu 2025 is the year of the explosion of AI applications, and smart glasses, regarded as "one of the best carriers for the implementation of AI large models," are undoubtedly one of the most "exciting" tracks in the technology industry. From Meta driving rapid sales growth of Ray-Ban Meta to the sudden heating up of the domestic "hundred glasses battle," almost everyone, from startups to internet giants and smartphone manufacturers, is talking about AI/AR glasses. The rapid influx of capital has quickly brought this once-silent industry to the forefront. However, behind the "hundred glasses battle," there are not many products that can truly achieve sustained shipments and user retention. Shipment volume, channel capabilities, and technological accumulation are becoming the dividing line, with capital and resources concentrating on a few leading companies. At this moment, on the second working day of 2026, leading AR glasses manufacturer Thunderbird Innovation announced the completion of a new round of financing, jointly invested by funds under China Mobile and China Unicom. This is also the first time that China's mainstream operators have jointly invested in the smart glasses track. "In the past year, the number of investors entering the smart glasses industry has significantly increased," said Li Hongwei, founder and CEO of Thunderbird Innovation, in an exclusive interview with Wall Street Insight. He revealed that this round of financing was oversubscribed by a lot, two to three times the original plan. At the same time, he pointed out that although investor enthusiasm is high now, funds are still concentrating on the leading companies. Counterpoint data shows that Thunderbird Innovation's global market share reached 24% in Q3 2025, ranking first in the global AR smart glasses market for two consecutive quarters. In addition, according to Wall Street Insight, Thunderbird Innovation's overseas revenue accounted for more than 30% last year and is expected to exceed 50% in 2026. Globalization is an important strategy for Thunderbird Innovation, with North America, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia being key markets for its current and future layout. Regarding the reasons why China's mainstream operators chose to jointly bet on the smart glasses track at this time, Li Hongwei believes that the development situation of the smart glasses industry is very clear now, and everyone sees that this industry is growing rapidly, and products are maturing quickly. "The operators believe that the industry has reached a tipping point for an explosion." From the perspective of the operators' own development, investing in Thunderbird Innovation is mainly based on two considerations: the first is strategic judgment, as he believes that operators need to lay out the track of "next-generation smartphones"; the second is that it is now a good time to cooperate with smart glasses manufacturers. It is worth mentioning that alongside the cash investment from funds under China Mobile and China Unicom, there will also be significant breakthroughs for Thunderbird Innovation in products and channels—during CES 2026, Thunderbird Innovation will showcase its first eSIM AR glasses, which feature a dual full-color display solution and an integrated eSIM module "Since smart glasses are the next generation of mobile phones, they need to be relatively independent." Li Hongwei pointed out that whether it is colored MicroLED or eSIM, it can be seen that only Thunderbird is truly working on the "next generation of mobile phones." The collaboration between Thunderbird Innovation and China Mobile and China Unicom is systematic. On one hand, they will work together on products; in addition to eSIM, for example, operators can also help Thunderbird layout edge computing, which can fill the gaps in computing power and latency for smart glasses. On the other hand, the operators' vast user base and channel capabilities also provide a realistic path for Thunderbird Innovation's product scaling. "More than a decade ago, operators facilitated the rapid popularization of smartphones, offering phones with prepaid plans, and the speed of this popularization was quite fast." Li Hongwei believes that Thunderbird Innovation will also collaborate with operators to offer glasses with prepaid plans. Once this model matures, it could become an important turning point for industry popularization. Undoubtedly, capital betting on smart glasses is a competition for the "next generation mobile terminal" and "AI super entrance." The future development potential of smart glasses has reached a consensus in the industry, while the debate lies in when and who can bring smart glasses into every household. "I don't quite agree with the view that 2025 will be the year of the explosion or breakthrough for smart glasses." Li Hongwei believes that in the past year, there has not been a fundamental breakthrough in product capability for smart glasses; the biggest characteristic is that the industry is very lively, with more people seeing opportunities in this market, but there is still a lack of focus on experience standards. Li Hongwei stated that 2026 will be the year of smart glasses, and 2027 and 2028 will be the "iPhone moments." There is a distinction here: 2026 is the year of "products that lay eggs along the way," which can meet user experience standards, while 2027 and 2028 will truly reach the state of the first-generation iPhone. This judgment contrasts with the optimistic sentiments in the market. In the past year, smart glasses frequently took the "C position," with some functions "going viral," significantly increasing industry attention, and many voices believe that 2025 will be the "year of smart glasses" or "the year of breakthrough." Clearly, in Li Hongwei's view, liveliness does not equate to maturity. Many smart glasses products resemble combinations of functions, and there is still a significant gap before ordinary users are willing to wear them all day and use them long-term. This also explains why many products gain attention in the short term but struggle to form long-term competitiveness. Li Hongwei divides the next development of the smart glasses industry into three stages: the first stage is from now until before the "iPhone moment," where there are many players, and the core issue is who can truly create the next generation iPhone; the second stage is the process from iPhone to iPhone 4, which is the transition of a product from revolutionary definition to becoming a mass product; the third stage is from the iPhone 4 moment to determining the winners and losers, where players compete comprehensively from various dimensions. Standing on the eve of industry explosion, major players must go all out to become the first company to create the "iPhone." Li Hongwei pointed out that the core logic of this stage is to see who has the determination to create the next generation iPhone and has sufficient resources, including money and people, to run fast enough According to Wall Street Insights, the latest round of cash financing for Thunderbird Innovation has exceeded 1 billion yuan. Li Hongwei revealed that the core purpose of this funding is research and development, allowing the products of 2026 to quickly meet experience standards and expand competitive advantages in key technologies such as optical display, spatial computing, and AI. "Last year, many products were launched in the industry, but frankly, almost all of them did not truly meet user experience standards." He said that whether users feel good after using the product and whether they are willing to recommend it to those around them are his core criteria for judging product maturity. However, Li Hongwei believes that whether for new technologies or past engineering investments, it is now time to continuously work on these two aspects to achieve experience standards. Returning to the products themselves, currently, there is no unified definition of AR glasses and AI glasses in the market; the technical routes, functional positioning, and market promotion of the two often have overlaps or ambiguities. Some manufacturers view AI glasses as a transitional form of AR glasses, while others frequently define their products as "AR + AI" glasses. Li Hongwei believes that the future smart glasses market will mainly be divided into the following product forms: the first is AI glasses without displays, which are closer to the product logic of some major manufacturers in the past. The main strategic value of these glasses is to collect data and enhance the existing AI ecosystem on smartphones. The second type is AR glasses with displays, which can be subdivided into two categories: one type resembles normal glasses with very few functions, while the other type has relatively powerful functions but indeed comes with higher weight and cost. In terms of technical path, Thunderbird has chosen a relatively "heavy" route: full-color MicroLED waveguide display, low-power system architecture, and deep integration of AI and spatial computing. This is a path that is destined to be difficult but correct, viewed by Li Hongwei as a necessary route to the "next generation terminal." On the first working day of 2025, Thunderbird Innovation also dropped a heavy bomb on the smart glasses industry by announcing a strategic cooperation with Alibaba Cloud, where Alibaba Cloud's Tongyi series large models will provide exclusive customized full sets of AI technology and product support for Thunderbird Innovation's AI glasses. At that time, Li Hongwei revealed that the cooperation between Thunderbird Innovation and Alibaba would consider exploring Killer APPs (killer applications) as the most important task, with edge large models ranking second or third. Now, Li Hongwei states that creating killer applications will still be the most important task for Thunderbird Innovation, and they are now at the stage of being ready and about to go online. In the long and challenging race of smart glasses, the excitement is just the beginning. The real watershed may still lie ahead. Below is the full dialogue between Wall Street Insights and Li Hongwei (edited): The Smart Glasses Industry Welcomes an Explosive Turning Point Wall Street Insights: Why do you think operators choose to invest in Thunderbird at this time? How do they judge the development of this industry? Li Hongwei: First of all, it is a two-way process because everyone has the same conclusion about the industry judgment. From the perspective of the operators as investors, they believe the industry has reached a turning point for an explosion. Although the iPhone moment for this industry has not yet arrived, I think it should be around 2027 or 2028. However, the current situation in the industry is already very clear; they see that the industry is growing rapidly and the products are maturing quickly. For operators, there are two considerations. The first is strategic consideration, which is what the next generation of phones will be, and we need to layout the next generation of tracks. This also leans more towards their capital-level considerations. The second is the consideration of business cooperation. From the perspective of business cooperation, it is about when the products will mature and when they feel it is really possible to cooperate. Because they are facing mass users, each operator serves hundreds of millions or even billions of users, and they hope to provide a good product experience to users. The core of these two judgments is that they both feel it is a good time. Wall Street Insights: Many people in the industry say that this year is the explosive year and breakthrough year for smart glasses. Do you agree? What new characteristics have emerged in the industry over the past year? Li Hongwei: To be honest, I don't really agree with this view. I don't think 2025 is the year of AI glasses' emergence or breakthrough. When will it be? Perhaps 2026, because that is when the products can truly exceed user experience standards. The change in 2025 is that many people feel that many are doing this, but the important thing is whether there are real breakthroughs and what the underlying logic is. The logic behind many people’s actions, I think, is that more people see the market opportunity but have not yet seen the essence of this market. Even when people talk about the year of emergence, they do not see this essence. If people must say there is an emergence year, I believe 2026 is the emergence year, and 2027 and 2028 are the iPhone moments, which are different. Wall Street Insights: You just mentioned that "many people have not seen the essence of this market." What specifically do you mean? Li Hongwei: People see more of the surface excitement rather than the underlying changes. Many rarely discuss the issue of "experience standards," even within the industry. Many current products are just fun combinations, but the real question is whether you have made the product meet the experience standards. Some have become pessimistic because of this, saying that this direction is not worth pursuing, which I think is also not seeing the essence. They have not seen that the experience standards will change in 2026. Wall Street Insights: From the perspective of industry development, how do you judge the evolution of the future competitive landscape? Li Hongwei: I divide the industry into three stages: The first stage is now until the iPhone moment, where all sorts of players will come in, and the core is whether you can really create an iPhone; The second stage is from the iPhone moment to the iPhone 4 moment, where major manufacturers will officially enter the market, and the core remains product leadership. What does official entry mean? Does Xiaomi count as officially entering? I don't think so, based on the product results Xiaomi has achieved, I just don't think it counts They did not invest the main forces and core resources to do it; the results should be better than now if they had invested the main forces. The third stage is a bloody battle among the remaining players from various dimensions. The core logic of the first stage is to see who has the determination to create the next generation iPhone and has enough resources, including money and people, to run fast enough to make it happen. Why do operators choose Thunderbird? Wall Street Insights: What do you think is the core competitiveness that operators value most in Thunderbird? Li Hongwei: From a strategic perspective, they are focused on who can ultimately succeed in this track. Their judgment is that Thunderbird may have the highest probability of success, and from a product perspective, they believe Thunderbird currently offers the best product on the market. For operators, Thunderbird's products have several characteristics that indicate they are good. First, we have a very large user base. According to the latest Q3 data released by Counterpoint, in the global AR glasses field, we rank first in the market, occupying 24% market share. For every four AR glasses sold globally, one is Thunderbird. A large user number indicates that this product has been tested. Second, the standard of product experience is that user feedback is relatively good in all aspects. Third, Thunderbird's products are positioned at the right price point for this category. For them, it used to be that recharging phone bills came with a phone; now it’s recharging phone bills that come with glasses, which requires the glasses to be at a suitable price point. Offering glasses with phone recharges marks the beginning of a turning point. So, the product is evaluated from these dimensions. As for how they judge that Thunderbird is the company with the best chance of success in this track, I think there are several aspects: First, what is Thunderbird's most important advantage compared to other companies? Compared to the entire industry, I believe the most important advantage is its leading product technology accumulation. As a new category, it must provide users with valuable products, which is backed by leading products and technology. They have seen this, especially the leading position on the correct path. Currently, globally, only Meta and Thunderbird are truly working on the next generation of phones, specifically creating all-color display AR glasses integrated devices. Another point is that if they are to invest, they can only invest in startups. Among startups, Thunderbird is increasingly leading due to the Matthew effect. For example, from the perspective of financing, one can also see that there is a relative focus on the most promising enterprises, and they have recognized this. Of course, behind this is a series of factors such as the team, strategy, and so on. Wall Street Insights: Besides providing financial support, what other support can China Mobile and China Unicom bring to Thunderbird, or what collaborations can they develop? Li Hongwei: There will be systematic cooperation in business, mainly in two aspects: one is to work together on products, for example, we need to add eSIM cards to Thunderbird. In the past, glasses had to be paired with phones, and the experience was not that good; you had to pair it with Bluetooth. The other point, from a strategic perspective, is that this method will always rely on phones. But we know that glasses are the next generation of phones, so they need to be relatively independent. As I mentioned earlier, only Thunderbird is truly making the next generation of phones, whether it’s color MicroLED or eSIM In addition to eSIM, there are many other collaborations. For example, AI is very important now. Based on cooperation with operators, we are not only laying out in the cloud but also on the edge. Operators have done a lot of AI computing power in the base stations, which allows us to achieve faster AI speeds. If you only place it in the cloud, it is affected by network latency. For instance, when users take videos and photos, we can upload them to the cloud album, which can involve many business collaborations with operators. So the first point is at the product level. The second aspect is user promotion. More than a decade ago, operators facilitated the rapid wave of smartphone adoption, offering free phones with prepaid plans, which accelerated the adoption speed. Therefore, in the future, when we launch a promotion of free glasses with prepaid plans, the promotion speed will be relatively fast. It has two values: first, it covers a very large user base, and second, operators still have trust within the user system. The model of offering something for prepaid plans is also relatively mature, which is valuable for us. Wall Street Insights: When is the promotion of free glasses with prepaid plans planned to start? What is the specific plan? Li Hongwei: We have a general idea of the price range of the glasses we will offer, but the timing is not fully determined yet, so it's not appropriate to disclose it externally. Future Independent IPO Plans Wall Street Insights: Our current round of financing has reached 1 billion. What areas will it focus on? Li Hongwei: The main core focus is on R&D. What problems do the products in the industry currently face? We are not shy to say that this year many people have launched products, but almost all of them have not met user experience standards. After using the product, can users say that it is very good and are willing to recommend it to others? After using it, if there are no issues and they feel it is mature enough, I think we are not there yet. For Thunderbird, we have laid out industry-leading technology over the past four years, so we know the level of technology we have reached. Whether for new technologies or past engineering investments, I believe we have reached a point where continuing to do these two things can meet experience standards. The money we raised is genuinely aimed at making significant R&D investments so that the products in 2026 can quickly meet experience standards. Wall Street Insights: How has the financing environment in this industry changed over the past year? How will it evolve next? Li Hongwei: First, the number of investors has clearly increased, so we have significantly oversubscribed this time. The amount we are raising is 2 to 3 times what we previously aimed for, and we have also turned down offers that were close to our financing amount, so investors have become much more enthusiastic. Second, funding is concentrating towards the leading companies. Currently, investor enthusiasm is high, but if you look at who has raised a significant amount of money, it is mainly the top companies in this sector. I think this effect is quite evident because the industry has reached this point. It is no longer a time of dispersion; before the iPhone moment, it concentrated on leading enterprises, and after the iPhone moment, it may slightly disperse again, but I believe the overall direction is towards concentration Wall Street Insights: How to Understand Investment Diversification After the iPhone Moment? Li Hongwei: Because after the iPhone moment, everyone's confidence becomes stronger. You may not be able to invest in the leading companies, but you might invest in others. At this moment, you can still invest in leading startups if you want to. Wall Street Insights: Are there plans for an independent IPO in the future? Li Hongwei: We have such plans, but there is currently no timeline that we can disclose. This Year, Overseas Revenue Will Exceed Domestic Revenue Wall Street Insights: What is the current proportion of Thunderbird's overseas business? Li Hongwei: Our overseas proportion is currently over 30%, and by 2026, overseas revenue will basically exceed 50%. Thunderbird is inherently a global company, and this is very clear; we aim for globalization in this direction (smart glasses). Moreover, I believe this generation of entrepreneurs no longer sees China and overseas as two separate markets; now everyone believes that the world is a single market, and the mindset has become more globalized. Thunderbird has a strategic layout plan where we focus on one market at a time rather than spreading ourselves too thin. We first established ourselves in the Chinese market, then entered the U.S. market, and will begin focusing on the U.S. in mid-2024. This Black Friday and Christmas, you will see that we have significant layouts in North America, Europe, Japan, and South Korea. So if you look at the best-selling products on Amazon in the U.S. and Europe, you will find Thunderbird's products. This is our arrangement in terms of layout. Due to these channel layouts, by 2026, we will have a good presence in North America, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and a series of overseas countries and regions, and naturally, our overseas revenue will exceed domestic revenue. Wall Street Insights: What is Thunderbird's core strategy for market expansion moving forward? Li Hongwei: If we can gain a leading position in China and the U.S., we can replicate that success in other places. Since you have the ability to lead, you just need to enter more markets. Of course, some customization is needed for the products because the needs of people in different countries vary. We need to make some adjustments for the glasses. The software ecosystem will also differ, and our marketing and branding strategies will be tailored to each field. When we pursue globalization, we did not follow the traditional route of going overseas first. We relatively quickly jumped to localization, so you see that our marketing and branding strategies differ in different countries. For example, we focus more on grassroots marketing in China, while we do more branding overseas. For instance, we will launch IP co-branded products in North America in early 2026, which is more focused on branding. Wall Street Insights: Are there any differences in channels between domestic and international markets? Li Hongwei: There are differences in channels as well. We mainly follow two rules: the most important rule is how the local channel layout is structured. Because China and overseas are different, China is now primarily online, with various electronic consumer products mainly sold online, while the U.S. is still primarily offline, with an online-to-offline ratio of about 30:70 or 40:60 Although we first entered online in the United States, we will quickly move into offline channels, such as Walmart, Best Buy, Costco, Target, Sam's Club, etc. This is the main difference. Wall Street Insights: Are the offline stores primarily located in large retail spaces, or are they dedicated flagship stores? Li Hongwei: We will start with large retail spaces, leveraging the current mature system. In the future, we will have some flagship stores, but the short-term purpose of these flagship stores is mainly for brand building and experience. Prioritizing the Development of Killer Applications Wall Street Insights: What are the key technical directions that Thunderbird is currently focusing on? Li Hongwei: We are focusing on several key technical directions: First is the optical display part, so many of our glasses next year will have displays. There are several core issues with optical displays. One is the sensation-free display; currently, wearing glasses with a MicroLED waveguide still has some issues. For example, if you wear a monochrome pair of glasses, the world appears yellow, and its light transmittance is not very high. For someone like me who is not nearsighted, I feel like it obstructs my view, and there are issues with rainbow patterns. Meanwhile, the person sitting across from me might feel that my glasses are leaking light, with a certain area appearing abnormal. This is the first point regarding displays: sensation-free display. The second is performance issues, which include power consumption. We need to minimize power consumption so that these glasses can be worn all day, and there are many issues involved, including display brightness, resolution, and other metrics. The second area is AI. In the past, people said AI was one of the most important application scenarios for glasses, but it was mostly just putting AI into glasses. We have also made some optimizations, such as exclusive cooperation with Tongyi to make it faster and more effective, but it is still not enough; a qualitative change has not yet occurred. Therefore, we hope to create a qualitative change in functionality, specifically whether we can develop killer applications based on AI for glasses. Past applications were mostly about asking it questions, which is not much different from using AI on a phone. It can tell you what the weather is like today or what the flower across the street is, but there are no killer applications. We are training our core scenarios based on large models, aiming to turn them into killer applications. The third area is spatial computing algorithms. In the past, people used spatial computing capabilities relatively little. For example, when you are translating, can the translation result be displayed on the street sign you are looking at? This is something we are working on. We are not only developing the algorithms themselves; the papers we publish are the most core papers in this industry. I am also working on the integration of algorithms and chips to ensure that the production side can optimize the equipment sufficiently. The fourth area is optimizing the basic experience, such as hardware performance, software performance, battery energy density, and the size and weight of the glasses. I have broken down these dimensions from a technical perspective. Of course, from a user perspective, we will see glasses that are comfortable to wear and have killer AI applications, which have high experience standards. Wall Street Insights: Last year, you mentioned that developing killer applications was the most important thing at that time. Has this priority changed now? Li Hongwei: No, this is still the most important thing. Wall Street Insights: Now that a year has passed, how is the exploration of our killer application going, and what stage are we at? Li Hongwei: We are basically ready and about to go live. We have done a lot of foundational technical work. Wall Street Insights: Recently, Doubao phone has sparked a heated discussion about privacy data security triggered by AI Agents. Compared to phones, some believe that smart glasses might be the next true terminal entry for AI Agents. What do you think? Li Hongwei: I agree. It is a native AI device without the historical baggage of the phone ecosystem, and it can provide value during the time users are not looking at a screen. Looking back at history, we always thought that launching a frontal attack was good, but in fact, it is not; success comes from side competition, which is disruptive success. I have always told others that glasses are the best carrier for AI. Besides seeing what you see and hearing what you hear, there is one more point: it is a native AI device, which means that you don't have to compete with others in those ecosystems. Competing there is not something that can be resolved quickly, as there are vested interests involved. However, as a native AI device, smart glasses do not have those burdens, and they can perform very well. Wall Street Insights: Now that glasses are laying out large models on the edge, is their capability still somewhat behind that of phones in terms of edge deployment? How long will it take to bridge this gap? Li Hongwei: Yes. The issue with glasses is not entirely about computing power; it is about power consumption. I think it won't be bridged quickly because glasses still hope to be worn comfortably, and they won't have large batteries. So for AI on glasses, it is a system of edge and cloud collaboration; it does not necessarily have to be strictly on the edge. Of course, some things can be placed on the edge. Currently, the chips in glasses can run a 1 billion parameter system, while phones can run 6-7 billion parameter systems. The issue is more about power consumption. Wall Street Insights: If we put apps from phones onto glasses, will they authorize us? If you want to create an Agent that directly executes commands for us, can it be realized on glasses now? Li Hongwei: First of all, the Agent ecosystem on glasses is different from that on phones. Glasses will want to start from an ecosystem that is different from phones. Someone has summarized this, and I agree. We typically look at our phone screens for six to seven hours a day, and aside from sleeping for 8 hours, there are another 8 hours when we are not looking at our phone screens. During this time, we also hope for AI empowerment, so this is a good territory for glasses to play a role. I don't necessarily have to compete with you directly; I can first find a very good place to exert influence. Therefore, its ecosystem is not entirely the same as the phone ecosystem. When glasses need to use the phone ecosystem, at least there hasn't been a situation where applications are blocking the Doubao phone assistant. Because glasses have not yet penetrated the core of the phone market. Many people are doing quite well now, and many have opened up the system interfaces for Agents, such as Zhi Xiaobao, so the mindset on glasses is a bit more open It also does not fully cover all mobile ecosystems. Wall Street Insights: At what stage has the application ecosystem for smart glasses progressed? Li Hongwei: I think the progress is relatively slow now. The essence of ecosystem building is not about creating an ecosystem, but about making a good enough product. When the product is good, software vendors will be willing to join in actively. Many people claim to be building ecosystems every day, but I think that’s incorrect. When you launched the iPhone, the first generation didn’t have an App Store, and a lot of people were crying out to create products for you. Wall Street Insights: When smart glasses truly usher in their iPhone moment, many software vendors will naturally join in? Li Hongwei: Yes, it’s useless to mess with it now. The only benefit of doing it now is that you have to find a few killer applications. In this process, cooperation with the ecosystem is necessary. Building a broad ecosystem and expecting there to be 10,000 applications on glasses is pointless if no one is using the glasses; having so many applications is meaningless. Wall Street Insights: At what stage are we in achieving the capabilities of an AI Agent on glasses? Li Hongwei: We are currently working on this, but it hasn’t been released yet. However, the first method we are using for this Agent relies on API interfaces, rather than GUI Agent methods. The GUI Agent method is less efficient and is a last resort. We do have the GUI Agent method, but we prioritize using the API method. Wall Street Insights: When do you think the killer application we create will be able to showcase itself like the Doubao phone, giving everyone a thrilling experience? Li Hongwei: We believe that when we launch our new product, it will have that effect, and it should be released in the first half of 2026. In the past, when we said "thrilling," the final effect did not meet expectations, but this time I feel better about it and am relatively confident. Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market has risks, and investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not take into account individual users' specific investment goals, financial conditions, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article align with their specific circumstances. Investing based on this is at your own risk