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The Oppo Air Glass 3 is a prototype set of augmented reality (AR) glasses with a voice assistant.

Oppo

BARCELONA – Oppo on Monday unveiled a prototype set of augmented reality (AR) glasses with a voice assistant, underscoring how electronics giants are trying to infuse artificial intelligence across their products to stand out.

Oppo, a Chinese firm and one of the world’s biggest smartphone makers, announced the Oppo Air Glass 3 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

They look like a regular pair of glasses with Oppo trying to find a design that can be worn every day as a companion to a smartphone. Since they are AR glasses, users can see digital content imposed over the real-world view they see in front of them. This could be information such as a message or perhaps a map for navigation.

The Air Glass 3 needs to be tethered to an Oppo smartphone. Users can control the glasses with touch sensors on the side of the frame.

Oppo said that its latest AR glasses are equipped with a voice assistant which is powered by the Chinese tech giant’s own large language model (LLM) called AndesGPT. LLMs are AI models trained on a huge amount of data and underpin many of the chatbots, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which have exploded in popularity over the past year and a half.

The voice assistant is currently only available in China, Oppo said in a press release. The chatbot is capable of “performing information searches and conducting conversations to assist users in tasks like planning travel,” Oppo said.

This year electronics makers are talking up the way AI features have been put into their products amid an explosion in popularity and hype around the technology. Oppo is one of the many tech firms in China that has developed its own LLM, alongside others like Alibaba and Baidu.

Meanwhile, other smartphone makers outside of China are relying on their own AI models in a bid to bring new experiences to devices and stand out in a crowded sea of similar handsets.

Virtual reality and augmented reality have been spoke about by electronics makers for several years but haven’t exploded in popularity the way many had thought. Tech firms have taken different approaches. Apple launched the $3,500 Vision Pro this year, a large but very advanced AR headset. Meta through its Quest headsets has also chased the virtual reality market.

But there are many companies who believe lightweight glasses will be the future as they will allow people to wear them every day in a fashionable way. Chinese AR firm Xreal — which is backed by Alibaba — is one of those companies, along with Oppo, which has been investing in augmented reality for several years.

Oppo said in a press release it believes that glasses are a “suitable hardware carrier for AI due to its nature features such as visual and voice interactions, to eventually become the best companions for smartphones in more scenarios.” The glasses weigh just 50 grams.

Since the glasses are just a prototype, it’s unclear if Oppo plans to commercialize them. Oppo’s previous Air Glass 2 was not sold to the public.

But Oppo is trying to show off its tech prowess in a market it believes could be big in the future. Market research firm IDC had forecast just 500,000 shipments of AR headsets in 2023, but believes that could rise to 6.8 million in 2027.

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Alibaba shares rise over 6% after CEO unveils plans to boost AI spending

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Alibaba shares rise over 6% after CEO unveils plans to boost AI spending

Alibaba‘s Hong Kong-listed shares surged on Wednesday to reach their highest point since 2021 after the company said it will invest more in artificial intelligence and rolled out new AI products and updates. 

Shares of the company jumped over 6%, while its total gains year to date rose above 107%. 

The tech giant plans to increase spending on AI models and infrastructure development, on top of the 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) over three years it announced in February, Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu said Wednesday at Alibaba Cloud’s annual flagship technology conference.

“We are vigorously advancing a three-year, 380 billion [yuan] AI infrastructure initiative with plans to sustain and further increase our investment according to our strategic vision in anticipation of the [artificial superintelligence] era,” Wu said. 

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Alibaba shares surge after CEO unveils plans to boost AI spending

So-called ‘artificial superintelligence’ refers to AI that would hypothetically surpass the power and intelligence of the human brain, with the hypothetical benchmark becoming a growing focus of major AI companies. 

Alibaba also officially unveiled the latest version of its Qwen large language models — the Qwen3-Max — on Wednesday, along with a series of other updates to its suite of AI product offerings. 

Wu highlighted that Alibaba Cloud is strategically positioned as a “full-stack AI service provider,” delivering the computing power required for training and deploying large AI models on the cloud through its own data centers.

“The cumulative investment in global AI in the next five years will exceed $4 trillion, and this is the largest investment in computing power and research and development in history,” he added.

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Tether reportedly seeks lofty $500 billion valuation in capital raise

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Tether reportedly seeks lofty 0 billion valuation in capital raise

Venezuelan Bolivar and U.S. Dollar banknotes and representations of cryptocurrency Tether are seen in this illustration taken Sept. 8, 2025.

Dado Ruvic | Array

Tether, the issuer of the largest stablecoin, is planning to raise as much as $20 billion in a deal that could put the crypto company’s value on par with OpenAI, according to a report from Bloomberg News.

The crypto company is looking to raise between $15 billion and $20 billion in exchange for a roughly 3% stake through a private placement, the report said, citing two individuals familiar with the matter. The transaction would involve new equity rather than existing investors selling their stakes, the people told the news service.

The report said that one person close to the matter warned that the talks are in an early stage, which means that the eventual details, including the size of the offering, could change.

However, the deal could ultimately value Tether at around $500 billion, according to the report. That would mean the crypto giant’s valuation would rival some of the world’s biggest private companies, including SpaceX and OpenAI. OpenAI’s fundraising round earlier this year valued the tech company at $300 billion.

Tether, which was once accused of being a criminal’s “go-to cryptocurrency,” has been furthering its plans to return to the U.S. in recent months, given President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance. The company earlier this month named a CEO for its U.S. business and launched a new token for businesses and institutions in the U.S. called USAT, which will be regulated in the U.S. under the GENIUS Act.

Stablecoin USD Tether (USDT) is pegged to the U.S. dollar with a market cap that recently surpassed $172 billion. In second place is Tether rival Circle’s USDC stablecoin, which is worth about $74 billion.

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Micron beats on earnings as company sales rise 46% on AI boom

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Micron beats on earnings as company sales rise 46% on AI boom

A person walks by a sign for Micron Technology headquarters in San Jose, California, on June 25, 2025.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Micron reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue on Tuesday as well as a robust forecast for the current quarter.

The stock rose in extended trading.

Here’s how the company did in comparison with the LSEG consensus:

  • Earnings per share: $3.03, adjusted, vs. $2.86 expected
  • Revenue: $11.32 billion vs. $11.22 billion expected

Micron said revenue in the current period, its fiscal first quarter, will be about $12.5 billion, versus the $11.94 billion average analyst estimate per LSEG.

The company said it had $3.2 billion, or $2.83 per share in net income, versus $887 million, or 79 cents in the year-ago period.

Micron shares have nearly doubled so far in 2025. The company makes memory and storage, which are important components for computers. Micron has been one of the winners of the artificial intelligence boom. That’s because high-end AI chips like those made by Nvidia require increasing amounts of high-tech memory called high-bandwidth memory, which Micron makes.

“As the only U.S.-based memory manufacturer, Micron is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the AI opportunity ahead,” Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in a statement.

Overall company revenue rose 46% on a year-over-year basis during the quarter.

Micron’s largest unit, which sells memory for cloud providers, reported $4.54 billion in sales during the quarter, more than tripling on a year-over-year basis.

However, the company’s core data center business unit saw sales decline 22% on an annual basis to $1.57 billion in revenue.

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