Menlo Park, CA — May 30, 2026: Meta Platforms is laying the groundwork for one of the most ambitious hardware pushes in its history. According to a new report from The Information, the company is developing a dedicated "Wearables for Work" enterprise product line and actively testing a new AI pendant — positioning itself to dominate the fast-growing AI wearables market against rivals Apple, Google, and Amazon. The moves are designed to reverse years of staggering losses in Meta's Reality Labs hardware division while realizing CEO Mark Zuckerberg's vision of delivering "personal superintelligence" to billions of people.
The AI Pendant: Built on the Limitless Acquisition
Meta plans to start testing an AI pendant within the next year as part of an ambitious roadmap for wearable devices aimed at reversing the huge losses in its hardware division, according to The Information.
The pendant strategy traces directly back to Meta's acquisition of AI wearables startup Limitless. Meta acquired AI wearables startup Limitless as part of an effort to accelerate development of AI-enabled devices. Limitless' main product is an AI-powered pendant that records, transcribes, and summarizes users' conversations. Acquiring Limitless is likely less about the pendant itself and more about getting access to the startup's technology, which Meta may integrate into future products — helping Meta leapfrog years of research and development.
Meta acquired Limitless in December 2025 and folded the team into its Reality Labs division — the same unit responsible for the company's VR headsets and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. For the full background on Meta's AI wearables strategy and how it compares to rivals, The Verge's Meta coverage hub provides comprehensive, continuously updated reporting on Meta's hardware and AI initiatives.
'Wearables for Work': Meta Goes Enterprise
The most strategically significant element of the new report is Meta's plan for a dedicated enterprise wearables line. Dubbed "Wearables for Work," the initiative signals that Meta is no longer content to compete only in the consumer market where its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have found genuine traction. The company is now targeting the vast enterprise market — competing directly with Microsoft's mixed-reality push and Apple's Vision Pro in professional settings.
Enterprise wearables for knowledge workers could unlock enormous commercial value. Think AI glasses that take meeting notes in real time, pendants that transcribe sales calls automatically, or workplace wearables that surface contextual information hands-free for field workers, surgeons, engineers, and logistics teams. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has described the company's goal as bringing "superintelligence to everyone" — a vision that is increasingly being operationalized through AI-powered consumer and enterprise hardware.
The Smartwatch: Malibu 2 Set for 2026
The pendant and enterprise line are not Meta's only hardware bets. Meta is also working on a smartwatch internally referred to as Malibu 2, expected to launch in 2026. This device will integrate health-tracking features with Meta's artificial intelligence. The company has relaunched its shelved smartwatch project, planning to unveil it later in 2026 — having originally mothballed the smartwatch in 2022 as it scaled back spending on its Reality Labs division.
If the Malibu 2 timeline holds, Meta would have three distinct AI-powered wearable categories within the next year: eyewear (Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses), a pendant, and a smartwatch. That's a full wearable ecosystem — and it rivals Apple's own AI wearable ambitions at every tier.
The Competitive Context: Apple, Amazon, and Google All Racing
Meta is not alone in its conviction that AI wearables are the next major computing platform. Apple is accelerating development of three new wearable products, including smart glasses, an AI pendant, and camera-equipped AirPods — all built around the Siri digital assistant. Meanwhile, Amazon acquired AI wearable startup Bee in July 2025 and folded it into the Alexa and Echo strategy — showing it too is betting on ambient AI worn on the body.
What differentiates Meta's approach is scale and ecosystem depth. With 3.58 billion daily active users across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, Meta has an unparalleled distribution advantage. Every piece of hardware it ships comes pre-connected to a social and communications network that no startup or even Apple can replicate. The question is whether Meta can translate that user base advantage into dominant hardware market share — a conversion it has so far struggled to achieve despite years of Reality Labs investment.
What This Means for the AI Wearables Market
Meta's "Wearables for Work" initiative and AI pendant plans represent a coming-of-age moment for the broader AI wearables category. The AI wearable category is in a transformative phase in 2026 — the hardware is smaller, the models are sharper, and the form factor has stopped insisting on science-fiction theatrics. Platform companies including Meta have noticed: Meta's acquisition of Limitless and the steady software work on Meta Ray-Ban all point to AI wearables being absorbed into ecosystems people already use.
For investors and tech observers, Meta's hardware roadmap is a direct signal that the wearable AI race is now a platform war — not just a gadget competition — and Meta intends to be at the very center of it.