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An Apple Vision Pro mixed reality (XR) headset is seen at Apple store in New York, United States on Feb. 3, 2024.

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Online brokerage firm eToro is exploring ways to bring its retail trading app to augmented and virtual reality headsets from Apple and Meta, the company’s CEO Yoni Assia told CNBC exclusively.

EToro, which operates a trading platform on which users can buy and sell a range of assets ranging from stocks and exchange-traded funds to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, is looking at ways of launching on Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest.

If eToro succeeds in getting onto the Vision Pro and other VR devices, it would mark a rare step from a financial services firm to open up what is effectively a storefront in a virtual reality environment.

Assia said that artificial intelligence is a big focus for the firm and it is looking to integrate features that focus on giving users the ability to interact with the app via voice.

However, AR and VR are also a priority for the firm.

“We are planning to look at how we think about eToro with natural language, with voice, but actually also in the realm of AR VR, during 2024,” Assia told CNBC last week.

He didn’t provide a timeline for when eToro expects to launch an AR experience, and added that it remains an experiment the company is still exploring for the moment.

However, he suggested it will be a serious focus for the firm in 2024.

Financial firms such as JPMorgan and Citi have talked a big game about the “metaverse.” But this has been more in relation to desktop environments like Decentraland. And even then, hype surrounding digital real estate platforms like that has dropped off a cliff in the past couple years.

Limitations

It’s not yet fully fleshed out as a service.

But, on a simple level, eToro’s experience would allow users to pick stocks to buy and sell by touching digital screens within Apple’s Vision Pro and Meta’s Quest devices.

“You could actually now talk to the eToro app through the speaker [of your VR headset],” Assia said.

“I don’t think a lot of people are used to talking to their mobile phone asking questions, yet.” However, Assia expects this to become more mainstream.

Financial companies have refrained from taking big steps into virtual reality as the technology hasn’t proven its utility for something like banking or wealth management.

There are some technical limitations to consider.

While modern-day VR and AR headsets are getting better at tracking users’ eye movements, images can appear blurry if the display settings aren’t finetuned.

EToro said its augmented reality app would likely be a service that its more advanced traders will use, not necessarily casual retail traders or day traders.

“We’re starting to experiment with it,” Assia told CNBC in an exclusive interview. “Do I think it’s going to be hugely popular in 2024? Probably not probably, it’s still premature.”

“But I do think in the world of trading and investing, when we think of the vast amount of information, we’re trying to sort of constantly look at it to make smarter decisions,” he added.

The augmented reality experience would likely be enhanced with artificial intelligence, Assia noted, with a personal AI assistant helping users through the investing process.

“This is still in very initial discussions,” Assia noted, but added he thinks the firm could be ready to show off a prototype “in a couple of months.”

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Motive, an Alphabet-backed fleet management software company, files for IPO

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Motive, an Alphabet-backed fleet management software company, files for IPO

Direxion signage at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. The holiday-shortened week started with gains in stocks amid a broad advance that saw a continuation of the bullish momentum on Wall Street.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Motive, a company with software for managing corporate trucks and drivers, on Tuesday filed for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “MTVE.”

The paperwork puts Motive among a fast-growing group of tech companies looking to go public in 2026. Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX have all reportedly considered making their shares widely available for trading next year.

Motive is smaller, reporting a $62.7 million net loss on $115.8 million in revenue in the third quarter. The loss widened from $41.3 million in the same quarter of 2024, while revenue grew about 23% year over year. The company had almost 100,000 clients at the end of September.

Ryan Johns, Obaid Khan and Shoaib Makani started Motive in 2013, originally under the name Keep Truckin. Makani, the CEO, is Khan’s brother-in-law.

Investors include Alphabet’s GV, Base10 Partners, Greenoaks, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and Scale Venture Partners.

Motive’s AI Dashcam device for detecting unsafe driving “has prevented 170,000 collisions and saved 1,500 lives on our roads,” Makani wrote in a letter to investors. Most revenue comes from subscriptions, although Motive does sell replacement hardware and professional services.

The San Francisco company changed its name to Motive in 2022, and as of Sept. 30, it employed 4,508 people. Motive employs 400 full-time data annotators who apply labels that are meant to enhance artificial intelligence models.

Motive has ongoing patent-infringement litigation with competitor Samsara, which went public in 2021 and today has a $22 billion market capitalization.

WATCH: AI IPO boom next year? The changing 2026 IPO landscape

AI IPO boom next year? The changing 2026 IPO landscape

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Why an analyst sees Meta shares getting back to record highs – plus, another tariff reprieve

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Why an analyst sees Meta shares getting back to record highs – plus, another tariff reprieve

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U.S. pushes additional tariffs on Chinese chips to June 2027

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U.S. pushes additional tariffs on Chinese chips to June 2027

A silicon wafer with chips etched into is seen as U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris tours a site where Applied Materials plans to build a research facility, in Sunnyvale, California, U.S., May 22, 2023.

Pool | Reuters

The U.S. will increase tariffs on Chinese semiconductor imports in June 2027, at a rate to be determined at least a month in advance, the Trump administration said in a Federal Register filing on Tuesday.

But in the meantime, the initial tariff rate on semiconductor imports from China will be zero for 18 months, according to the filing from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

As part of an investigation that kicked off a year ago, the agency found that China is engaging in unfair trade practices in the industry.

“For decades, China has targeted the semiconductor industry for dominance and has employed increasingly aggressive and sweeping non-market policies and practices in pursuing dominance of the sector,” the office said in the filing.

The decision to delay new tariffs for at least 18 months signals that the Trump administration is seeking to cool any trade hostilities between the U.S. and China.

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Additional tariffs could also become a bargaining chip if future talks break down.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached a truce in the so-called trade war in October, as part of a deal that included the U.S. slashing some tariffs and China allowing exports of rare earth metals.

The USTR’s Tuesday filing states that tariffs will increase on June 23, 2027.

The notice is the next step in a process focusing on older chips that started during the Biden administration under Section 301 of the Trade Act.

The new 2027 date gives clarity to American firms that have said they are closely watching how U.S. tariffs could affect their businesses or supply chains.

The tariffs are separate from other duties threatened by the Trump administration on Chinese chip imports under Section 232 of the law.

EUV machines are key source of leverage for U.S. over China in AI race, says CSIS’s Gregory Allen

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