OpenAI is rumored to be developing its own mobile phones

On April 27, Ming-Chi Kuo issued a document stating that OpenAI is cooperating with MediaTek and Qualcomm to develop mobile phone chips, and Luxshare Precision will serve as the exclusive system joint design and manufacturing partner. The project is expected to enter the mass production stage in 2028.

According to reports, AI agents will fundamentally redefine mobile phones - the purpose of users using mobile phones is no longer to open a bunch of apps, but to directly perform tasks and meet various needs through the mobile phone, which completely overturns people's perception of existing mobile phones.

Analysts believe that the reason why OpenAI wants to develop its own mobile phones is mainly based on three considerations:

First, only by fully controlling the operating system and hardware can it provide a full range of AI agent services;

Second, only mobile phones can obtain the user's "current status" in real time, which is the most important input information for real-time AI agent inference services;

Third, in the foreseeable future, mobile phones will still be the largest terminal device.

This layout also reflects that AI native hardware is becoming a new track for major technology companies to compete. OpenAI has previously cooperated with former Apple design director Jony Ive to develop AI wearable devices and acquired io Products, a hardware company founded by the latter, in 2025.

In terms of technical architecture, Guo Mingchi said that mobile phones need to continuously understand the user's contextual information, so new requirements are put forward for the processor such as power consumption management, memory hierarchical management, and local running of smaller models, while more complex or high-intensity tasks are handled by cloud AI. Therefore, the design logic of mobile phones is also undergoing fundamental changes, requiring processors to achieve efficient collaboration in a layered architecture of small end-side AI models and large cloud AI models.

Ming-Chi Kuo pointed out that OpenAI has obvious advantages in terms of consumer brand influence, user data accumulation and AI model capabilities. Currently, mobile phone hardware is highly mature, and OpenAI is able to complete product development through supply chain cooperation. In terms of business model, OpenAI may bundle subscription services with hardware to build a new AI intelligent agent ecosystem and cooperate with developers.

For chip partners MediaTek and Qualcomm, OpenAI’s development of mobile phones is expected to bring long-term benefits. The two companies are expected to benefit from the replacement cycle driven by AI mobile phones in the long term, and chip specifications and suppliers are expected to be determined by the end of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027. Taking the "MediaTek × Google TPU Zebrafish" project as an example, the revenue of a single AI chip is approximately equivalent to 30 to 40 mobile phone SoCs. If it initially targets the global high-end model market of 300 to 400 million units per year, this rotation wave will provide it with a strong growth driver.

For Luxshare Precision, this project is of particular significance. Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Luxshare Precision’s assembly position in Apple’s supply chain will be difficult to surpass Hon Hai no matter how hard it works. Therefore, the early deployment of the OpenAI mobile phone project is expected to make it a leading beneficiary in the next mobile phone generation.