A CHINESE startup founded by former Apple and Meta engineers has developed a specialized coprocessor designed to create the lightest mixed reality headsets yet. Its proof-of-concept design is currently the lightest on record.

GravityXR’s team includes engineers who worked on Apple’s R1 chip for the Vision Pro and others with hardware experience at Meta, Huawei, and Amazon. The company is backed by major industry players: Goertek (manufacturer of Meta’s headsets), ByteDance (owner of Pico), and venture firms including Sequoia China and Lenovo Capital.

Their new chip, the G-X100, is engineered to be integrated directly into lightweight headsets. It handles latency-sensitive tasks like camera passthrough, positional and hand tracking, and image reprojection, achieving a remarkably low photon-to-photon latency of just 9 milliseconds.

By offloading these demanding functions, the G-X100 allows the primary processor — such as a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip — to be moved to a separate, tethered device. This architectural shift is key to reducing headset weight.

The G-X100 operates on only 3 watts of power, enabling passive cooling without heavy heatsinks or fans. This significantly reduces the weight compared to current standalone headsets, which require bulky thermal solutions to manage chips consuming 10-20 watts.

To demonstrate this approach, GravityXR built a reference design called the GravityXR M1. This passthrough headset uses pancake lenses, displays, and cameras, yet weighs under 100 grams — making it lighter than even the Bigscreen Beyond 2 and arguably crossing into the category of "mixed reality glasses."

Unlike birdbath-style devices from companies like Xreal and Viture, the M1 offers a 90-degree field of view, comparable to current VR headsets. As a video passthrough system, it can also render fully opaque virtual objects without dimming the user's view of the real world.

While the M1 is only a reference design and no manufacturer has yet announced a product using the G-X100, industry trends suggest its approach is prescient. Both Meta and Pico are rumored to be launching ultralight headsets next year. Notably, a Pico executive recently mentioned developing an in-house, R1-style chip, and Meta maintains a close partnership with Qualcomm alongside its own custom chip teams.

Across the industry, the era of heavy “facebricks” appears to be ending. The path to sleek, glasses-like visors lies in a split-chip architecture — exactly the kind of innovation GravityXR is pioneering.(SD-Agencies)