According to a new report from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, OpenAI is developing a smartphone that is set to bring true Agentic AI capabilities. The device will reportedly enter mass production in 2028 and will offer on-device AI abilities, while more demanding tasks will be sent to the cloud.
According to Kuo, OpenAI is currently working with both MediaTek and Qualcomm to develop a custom chipset for its upcoming smartphone. The report also outlines Luxshare as the exclusive co-design and manufacturing partner for the device.
OpenAI smartphone UI concept design (Credit: Ming-Chi Kuo)
According to Kuo, OpenAI’s smartphone would forgo the familiar app-based UI and would instead offer a “task stream”. This interface will reportedly feature a unified look with tasks and their status displayed directly on the start screen. According to the report, OpenAI is expected to develop an all-new agentic AI ecosystem with the help of third-party developers.
The one excerpt that stands out from Kuo’s post is that the OpenAI smartphone would “need to continuously understand the user’s context,” which likely signals always-on functionality at the chipset level. OpenAI is also expected to bundle some of its AI subscriptions with the smartphone.
Jony Ive and Sam Altman want to build a ”family of devices”
We’ve already seen several rumors for OpenAI hardware devices, ever since it acquired Jony Ive’s “io” startup last year. Back then, Sam Altman and Ive revealed plans of “building a family of devices,” and we’ve seen speculations about an AI Pen as well as AI earbuds and more recently – a smart speaker device.