OpenAI may build AI‑first phone

OpenAI may be exploring a smartphone that swaps traditional apps for artificial intelligence agents, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. (techcrunch.com) Kuo said OpenAI would work with Qualcomm and MediaTek on the phone’s processor, while Luxshare would co-design and manufacture the device. He said mass production could begin in 2028. (techcrunch.com) (cnbc.com) He also said the chip design and broader supplier list should be settled by late 2026 or the first quarter of 2027. Qualcomm shares rose about 7% just after the open, and Reuters reported a 13% premarket jump. (macrumors.com) (cnbc.com) (usnews.com) An AI agent phone is shorthand for a device that tries to do tasks for you instead of making you open one app after another. Kuo’s note, as described by TechCrunch, points to software that would book, message, search, and organize through a conversational layer. (techcrunch.com) (gadgets360.com) That would put OpenAI closer to Apple and Google’s strongest position in mobile: the app pipeline and operating-system layer that decides how services reach users. TechCrunch framed the report as a bid to rethink the smartphone interface itself. (techcrunch.com) The report also cuts against what had been known about OpenAI’s hardware plans with former Apple design chief Jony Ive. In May 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that Altman described the Ive project as a “third core device” alongside a phone and a laptop, not a phone replacement. (macrumors.com) (usnews.com) Reuters said OpenAI bought Ive’s startup io for $6.5 billion in May 2025, bringing the former iPhone designer deeper into its hardware effort. That gives the new smartphone report a clearer hardware lineage, even if OpenAI has not confirmed it. (usnews.com) OpenAI, Qualcomm, and MediaTek had not publicly confirmed the project in the reports circulating Monday. For now, the story rests on Kuo’s supply-chain checks and the market reaction they triggered. (techcrunch.com) (cnbc.com)