This former Apple executive bets on Shenzhen rather than Silicon Valley: The next Apple will be born here
Wang Weir, founder and CEO of Reality Yuanjing Technology, said that if consumer electronics start-ups want to reproduce The success rate of landing in Shenzhen is much higher than that of Silicon Valley; Wang Weir said that Silicon Valley’s enthusiasm for investment in hardware startups has subsided significantly; The company's next round of financing will raise funds from global investors to help expand overseas markets. On April 13, 2026, visitors experienced smart glasses at the 6th China International Consumer Goods Expo in Haikou, Hainan. Will Wang, CEO of domestic smart glasses unicorn company Even Realities, said that consumer electronics start-ups that want to create the “next Apple” have a better chance of taking root in Shenzhen than in Silicon Valley. Wang Weir said in an interview on Wednesday: "If we are determined to delve deeply into the consumer electronics track and build a company that may rival Apple, we must take root in Shenzhen, the core of the hardware industry." He pointed out that Shenzhen has a large number of engineering and technical talents and also has the world's top supply chain advantages. The Shenzhen-based company announced on Monday the completion of a $150 million round of financing, valuing it at $1 billion post-money, with investors including Meituan and Tencent. Will Wang worked at Apple from 2016 to 2018 and participated in the R&D and mass production of Apple Watch and iPhone; now he is targeting the artificial intelligence wearable device market dominated by the Metaverse platform Meta. Wang Weir said frankly that Silicon Valley no longer favors hardware entrepreneurs: hardware product development cycles are longer, the revenue ceiling is not as high as that of AI software, and they also face unavoidable supply chain problems, so capital has shunned them. "Silicon Valley no longer treats hardware practitioners very favorably." He said that talents and capital are flocking to artificial intelligence and intelligent software agency tracks on a large scale. "There are fewer and fewer local consumer electronics startups in Silicon Valley, and related technical talents continue to be lost." On the other side of the ocean, in Shenzhen, the industrial talent ecosystem is becoming increasingly prosperous. There are a large number of mobile phone, drone, and consumer electronics manufacturers locally, as well as a large number of mechanical, electrical, and optical engineers. Shenzhen has gathered many Chinese technology giants: Tencent, Huawei, drone company DJI, and new energy vehicle company BYD. At the same time, it has continued to attract a new generation of entrepreneurs to take root, giving birth to cutting-edge companies such as panoramic camera manufacturer Yingshi Innovation and robotics company Youbixuan. Looking at the global market, the United States is still the core position for this company's overseas expansion. More than half of Reality Realm's users are from the United States. At present, many Chinese start-ups are focusing on the AI consumer hardware track, relying on the complete domestic manufacturing industry chain to make up for the first-mover advantage of the United States in the software field. According to data from the investment database PitchBook, domestic smart glasses company Rokid (Rokid) has received investment from Singapore sovereign fund Temasek and other institutions, with a valuation of US$2.58 billion; Thunderbird Innovation, a small and medium-sized manufacturer in the industry, is valued at US$239.9 million. When asked whether this round of financing deliberately only introduced Chinese capital, Wang Weir responded: Domestic investors are more efficient in decision-making and closer to the company; but the next round of financing will focus on raising funds from global investors to support overseas business expansion. Reality Yuanjing’s past investors were mostly local venture capital investors, including CDH Investments, Cornerstone Capital, and CVC Capital. In January this year, it also received an undisclosed amount of investment from Unicorn Capital and Qinglan Capital. The company was established in 2023. At the end of last year, it launched the Even G2 smart glasses, paired with the Even R1 smart ring that can control the screen. Unlike Meta's camera-equipped Ray-Ban smart glasses, G2 does not have any camera or recording hardware and relies on the built-in heads-up display in the lenses to realize functions such as message reminders, navigation, and real-time translation.