Retail Traders Bet Big On Small-Cap Warby Parker As Stock Rockets On Google’s $150M Deal To Power AI Glasses

Shares of small-cap stock Warby Parker, Inc. (WRBY), an eyewear brand, took off sharply Tuesday afternoon when trading resumed after a brief halt.

The upside came after Warby Parker announced a partnership with Alphabet, Inc.’s (GOOGL) (GOOG) Google unit to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-powered glasses intended for all-day wear. The disclosure was made coinciding with Google’s annual ‘I/O’ developer event.

In connection with the partnership, Google agreed to invest up to $150 million in Warby Parker, including picking up an equity stake at the latter’s option, to reinforce its long-term commitment.

The proposed tie-up is the first eyewear partnership for Android XR — Google's proprietary extended reality operating system.

Warby Parker co-founder and co-CEO Dave Gilboa said, “We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Google to bring together the best of AI and the best of eyewear.”

The executive said multimodal AI is ideally suited for glasses, enabling real-time context and intelligence to augment a wearer’s surroundings as they move through the world.

The companies plan to unveil a series of products over time, with the first line of intelligent eyewear likely launching after 2025.

Google said in a blog post that, in addition to Warby Parker, it has collaborated with Gentle Monster to create “stylish” glasses with Android XR. 

As part of the initiative, the company also advanced its partnership with Samsung to go beyond headsets and extend Android XR to glasses. 

Google said, “Together, we’re creating a software and reference hardware platform that will enable the ecosystem to make great glasses.”

“Developers will be able to start building for this platform later this year.”

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment toward Warby Parker stock was ‘extremely bullish’ (88/100) by late Tuesday, with the message volume at ‘extremely high’ levels.

A watcher expressed bullishness after seeing the video of the glasses that the two companies wew working on.

Another user said the Google partnership would drive the stock to $28 by June.

Warby Parker stock ended Tuesday’s session up 15.63% at $20.34 but is down about 16% for the year.

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