Alibaba has officially launched its first smart glasses, Quark S1, powered by the company’s in-house Qwen AI model. The device marks Alibaba’s entry into the consumer wearable market, combining augmented-reality capabilities with integrated AI assistance.
The glasses feature semi-transparent displays that project contextual information over the real world, as well as cameras, bone-conduction microphones, and swappable batteries. According to Alibaba, the system delivers up to 24 hours of use and is designed for everyday AR features and real-time AI tasks.
Visually and functionally, the Quark S1 is positioned as a domestic competitor to Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, though Alibaba is initially targeting the Chinese market. A more affordable version, Quark G1, will ship without the micro-OLED displays.
The launch coincides with a broader expansion of the Qwen ecosystem. Last week, Alibaba rolled out a new app that consolidates its AI services and reported rapid adoption, exceeding 10 million users. Qwen AI is now integrated across the Quark browser and will serve as a core component of the company’s growing lineup of smart wearables.
The Quark S1 glasses run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon AR1 platform, a chipset built specifically for AR eyewear and equipped with dedicated neural-processing accelerators. The S1 model is already available through Tmall, JD.com, Douyin, and retail stores across China.
According to a Quark spokesperson, international sales will begin in 2025, including availability through AliExpress.
Alibaba is also weaving its services directly into the hardware experience. Users will be able to access Taobao, Fliggy, and Alipay, with additional integrations from NetEase Cloud Music and Tencent’s QQ Music. This expands the scope of what the device can do without ever pulling out a smartphone.
The global AR market is heating up as major tech players move toward AI-driven wearables. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently spoke about building a “personal superintelligence” that people will interact with primarily through smart glasses — signaling that the next wave of computing may shift directly onto users’ faces.
