Rumors about OpenAI's ambitions in the hardware field are not new, but until recently the company made sure to clarify that it had no intention of producing its own smartphone. Now, it seems that this strategy is changing from one extreme to the other. According to a new report by the well-regarded analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, OpenAI has begun actively working on developing its first in-house smartphone, one designed to pose direct competition to Apple's iPhone. The device, which is expected to reach mass production in 2028, marks the company's transition from a software-only player to a hardware manufacturer with global influence.
The project in question is not taking place in a vacuum. The company has been collaborating for some time with Jony Ive, who previously served as Apple's chief designer and was responsible for the iconic look of its products for decades. The team is working on a series of devices that integrate deep artificial intelligence, with the first product expected to be a smart speaker in the style of the HomePod, equipped with ChatGPT capabilities and a built-in camera. Alongside it, smart glasses and a smart lamp are also in development, but the phone is undoubtedly the centerpiece of the current move.
According to data provided by Kuo, OpenAI has already begun talks with chip giants MediaTek and Qualcomm for the development of dedicated processors for its smartphone. Luxshare has been selected as the exclusive partner for system design and actual manufacturing. The emerging timeline indicates that the technical specifications and the final supplier list will be finalized toward the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027, which will enable the planned launch a year later.
The vision behind the device is not just "another phone", but the creation of a completely different user experience from what is currently familiar in the market. Kuo explains that artificial intelligence agents (AI Agents) will be the ones shaping the device's operation, causing it to feel and function in a fundamentally different way from the iPhone. It seems that at OpenAI they understand that the smartphone will remain a central tool in users' lives for many years, and that in order to lead in the AI field, they must also control the hardware that runs it. This stands in contrast to earlier assessments that dedicated AI devices would replace the smartphone. Even the CEO of Perplexity, Aravind Srinivas, recently reinforced this approach when he noted that artificial intelligence does not replace the iPhone, but rather makes it far more valuable for the user. Now, OpenAI is seeking to take that value into its own hands.