NEW YORK, June 17, 2026, 05:14 (EDT)
- Snap shares slid 9.63% to end at $5.16 on Tuesday after the company unveiled its $2,195 Specs AR glasses.
- Specs are up for preorder now. Customers in the U.S., UK and France can reserve a pair with a $200 refundable deposit. Snap Inc. expects to start shipping this fall.
- Nasdaq Composite slid 1.15% Tuesday. Snap fell more as the stock got hit by worries over hardware spending, activist moves, and weaker demand.
Snap Inc. stock traded lower in premarket Wednesday. Shares slid nearly 10% yesterday, with investors still doubtful the new $2,195 augmented-reality glasses will pay off for Snapchat’s parent or just add more hardware losses. Snap was lately at $5.16, putting its market cap near $8.7 billion.
Timing is key here. Snap is pitching itself to Wall Street as able to expand past a difficult ad market, even as it deals with activist investors. Tech stocks fell on Tuesday—Nasdaq lost 1.15%, S&P 500 dropped 0.57%—but Snap’s decline was its own, not just part of the wider slide.
Snap showed off its Specs at the Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, California, calling them consumer AR glasses. With augmented reality, digital images or data sit on top of what a person sees in the real world.
Snap Inc. said Specs are up for preorder at $2,195, with buyers putting down a $200 refundable deposit. They’re slated to ship this fall in the US, UK and France. CEO Evan Spiegel called them “the beginning of a new era in computing” and said in the launch release that the specs put computing “where life actually happens.” Snap Inc.
Snap is positioning the device in the middle of Meta Platforms’ Ray-Ban smart glasses and Apple’s Vision Pro headset. Specs cost less than Apple’s $3,499 Vision Pro but are more expensive than Meta’s smart glasses, which go from $379 to $799. The price gap could keep consumers away.
Spiegel told Reuters Snap aimed to make a “totally new type of computer.” Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, called the price “a bit on the high end” but said full AR glasses are “extremely difficult and expensive” to make. Reuters
The launch is bringing back debate over how Snap handles its money. Irenic Capital Management has called for Snap to spin off or close Specs after the company spent more than $3.5 billion on it, Reuters said. CEO Spiegel pushed back, arguing Snap’s job is to focus on long-term profits, not just short-term pressure.
Snap set up Specs as its own subsidiary in January, looking for more focus and cap flexibility and leaving the door open for a minority investor. That matters as funding or a partner could help with investor worries about the hardware effort leaning on Snapchat.
Snap’s core business is looking better but still has some rough edges. The company’s first-quarter revenue came in at $1.529 billion, a rise of 12% from last year. Net loss was $89 million. Free cash flow clocked in at $286 million. That’s cash left after capital spending. Daily users worldwide reached 483 million, up 5%.
The risk for Snap is clear: if buyers think the price is too high, Snap could keep taking the hit on hardware as Meta and Apple push devices that are cheaper or better known. Spiegel told Reuters that memory-chip prices have already pushed up costs. If preorders stay soft, pressure may grow for Snap to look for external funding, cut Specs, or drop the project.
Snap still has to prove developer interest, announce any new partners this year and give a roadmap for lower-cost versions. For now, shares aren’t moving on future tech hopes. The focus is back on how long Snap plans to stick with public investors.
