It’s been more than 17 years since the modern smartphone era began with the launch of the iPhone, and tech companies have been obsessed with trying to disrupt it ever since.

The most common approach is mixed reality XR headsets: computerized goggles that put all of your apps and other digital content right in front of your face.

Samsung is the latest to take on the category with the Galaxy XR. Samsung will start selling it on Tuesday night for $1,800, about half the price of Apple‘s Vision Pro.

Early adopters will also get a suite of digital freebies, like free access to the paid version of Google‘s Gemini AI assistant and YouTube Premium for a year.

The headset was made in partnership with Google for the software and Qualcomm, which makes the chip powering the Galaxy XR.

Samsung’s Galaxy XR lets you enter an immersive, virtual computing experience where your apps and other content appear to float in your field of view. External cameras project the real world onto the tiny 4K displays in the headset, meaning you can walk around a room while wearing the Galaxy XR without bumping into anything.

You control everything with hand gestures, your voice or a mix of both.

As for the headset itself, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were looking at an Apple Vision Pro.

From the curved glass on the front of the Galaxy XR, to the metal trim and the external battery pack that dangles from the headset by a cable, it’s almost as if Samsung and Google spent the last two years reverse-engineering the Vision Pro.

And in those two years, we’ve learned a lot about these computers for your face.

They’re niche, expensive products that most people don’t want to use, and there’s still no killer app or enough immersive content to keep you consistently entertained and justify the $2,000 or more you’re spending.

The promise of the metaverse evaporated as soon as ChatGPT came on the scene in late 2022 and the tech industry shifted its focus to artificial intelligence. Even Mark Zuckerberg, who changed his company’s name to “Meta” in 2022, barely talks about the metaverse anymore.

But Samsung has a different pitch for the Galaxy XR.

It may come with all the drawbacks of Apple or Meta’s headsets, but Samsung and Google say the Galaxy XR is really a stepping stone to AI glasses currently in development with eyewear brands Warby Parker and Gentle Monster.

Those devices will rely on Google’s AI assistant Gemini, which is also central to the experience on the Galaxy XR.

Google showed an early demo of those glasses at its annual I/O event in May, but there are no details on when such a device will launch. Google also has a long track record of announcing products at I/O that never actually go on sale to the public.

Remember Google Glass? What about the Nexus Q?

But Google and Samsung are acting like things are different this time, and that’s why Gemini is such a big part of the Galaxy XR.

While you can control everything in the headset using hand gestures and Samsung even mimicked the same gestures Apple came up with for the Vision Pro.

The Gemini controls were, however, the most impressive portion of the Galaxy XR demo Samsung had in New York last week.

I could use Gemini to organize floating windows of apps in my virtual workspace, ask it questions about landmarks I was looking at in Google Maps, or prompt it to generate a goofy video using Veo, Google’s AI video generator that’s like OpenAI’s Sora.

Overall, the Gemini demo was flawless. It understood everything I said, even in a noisy conference room, and executed my commands quickly.

It wasn’t exactly revolutionary, but it was a step beyond the capabilities of the Vision Pro, which doesn’t have generative AI features at all.

I could see how Gemini will evolve to fit into a more comfortable and stylish form factor, like Meta has with its Ray-Ban AI glasses. And I can now understand why Apple has reportedly changed its plans from developing a new version of the Vision Pro in favor of AI glasses that are expected to launch in 2026.

Now for the major downside.

Gemini runs in the cloud, meaning you must give it permission to “see” everything you do on your headset by transmitting it over the internet to Google’s servers. Google doesn’t have the same private cloud technology Apple has for its AI systems, so you risk sharing a lot of personal information about what you do on your device with the company. That’s going to be a nonstarter for many people.

Even though you can see the promise of AI-powered glasses, they’re even more of a niche product than immersive headsets, much smaller than smartphones, laptops or tablets.

Meta, the market leader for the category, only sold 2 million pairs of its Ray-Ban glasses in the first two years. By comparison, Apple sells well over 200 million iPhones a year. We’re a long way off from glasses becoming a must-have accessory to your phone like wireless earbuds or a smartwatch.

And as impressive as Gemini is so far, a future where the smartphone is replaced by an AI device like glasses has never felt further away.

Netflix’s business leaders and investors probably aren’t enjoying a soda pop after the release of its third-quarter results. While the company’s revenue met expectations — though not beating them as it did the first and second quarters — earnings were taken down by a tax dispute with Brazilian authorities. Shares of Netflix fell around 6% in extended trading Tuesday stateside.

But it doesn’t look like any other media company will dethrone Netflix as the king of streaming in the near term. Warner Bros. Discovery said Tuesday it’s open to a sale — and Netflix is reportedly an interested buyer — even as Warner Bros. is going ahead with its split into two companies in the meantime. Elsewhere, Comcast’s NBCUniversal is currently spinning off its cable networks, which includes CNBC. Those moves suggest that legacy media is still finding its footing amid the era of streaming inaugurated by Netflix.

While there are many factors contributing to Netflix’s golden status, its shows are likely the main protagonists. “KPop Demon Hunters,” released in June, was a smash hit. It’s now the company’s most-watched film, hitting 325 million views and surely played a huge role in Netflix’s best ad sales quarter ever in the third quarter. Even as the streaming giant’s earnings stumbled during that period, Netflix is still showing other media companies how it’s done.

— CNBC’s Sarah Whitten contributed to this report.

Gold is getting knocked on Tuesday – it’s still the hottest trade of the year

Precious metals have gained in 2025 thanks to concerns around global trade, expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts and a drop in the U.S. dollar. But the size of those returns is unusual for gold and silver, especially when the stock market is doing well. 

Investors are seeing them as a scarce asset as the “currency debasement” trade gains momentum on Wall Street. This trade refers to investors hedging against government borrowing and money printing, lessening the U.S. dollar’s value by moving into gold and other assets.

— Sean Conlon

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is getting a big bump in his compensation, as the company’s stock price has continued to rally, propelled by the boom in artificial intelligence.

Nadella’s total pay for fiscal 2025 climbed 22% to $96.5 million from $79.1 million last year, Microsoft said in a proxy filing after the close of regular trading on Tuesday. That includes more than $84 million in stock awards and over $9.5 million in Nadella’s cash incentives.

The pay plan is largely tied Microsoft’s share performance. So far in 2025, Microsoft’s stock price has risen by 23%, topping the S&P 500’s 15% gain. The shares have more than doubled in valued over the past three years.

Microsoft is scheduled to report results for the fiscal first quarter next week. In its fourth-quarter disclosure in July, the company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue, with sales climbing 18%, the fastest growth in more than three years. Microsoft Azure business is driving expansion as companies’ cloud infrastructure needs grow to meet AI demand.

In fiscal 2024, Nadella’s pay jumped 63% from 48.5 million the prior year, with 90% of his compensation coming from stock awards. Nadella was eligible for a $10.66 million cash incentive last year, but he asked the board’s compensation committee to reduce that number to $5.2 million as a result of a series of cyberattacks that the company endured.

Despite Microsoft’s strong financial and stock performance, the company has seen turmoil among its workforce in recent months. In July, Nadella penned a memo to employees saying that the company’s elimination of more than 15,000 employees in 2025 had “been weighing heavily” on him.

Microsoft has also terminated several activist employees who protested the company’s work with the Israeli military.

WATCH: Microsoft is trending toward a $5T market cap, says Wedbush’s Dan Ives