TDK acquires smart glasses startup SoftEye for under $100 million

Japan's TDK Corporation announced on June 19, 2025 that it had acquired San Diego-based SoftEye, a developer of eye-tracking and object-recognition software and hardware for smart glasses, in a deal reported to be worth less than $100 million. SoftEye's founder and CEO, Te-Won Lee, previously held executive roles at Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm. TDK said the acquisition would accelerate delivery of a complete smart-glasses system and create a new human-machine interface for interacting with AI through eye movement, as the battery and components maker seeks AI-linked growth drivers.