OpenAI Is Building a Phone Where AI Agents Replace Your Apps, and It Won't Ship Until 2028

After spending $6.5 billion on Jony Ive's hardware studio, OpenAI is no longer content with screenless gadgets. The company is reportedly building a full-blown smartphone, and the news sent Qualcomm stock up 13% in premarket trading.

An OpenAI smartphone built with Qualcomm and MediaTek

The scoop comes from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, famous for his accurate Apple supply chain leaks. He reports that OpenAI is working with MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Luxshare on an AI-first phone. Luxshare, which already assembles iPhones, would be the exclusive manufacturing partner.

Chip specs and suppliers should be locked down by late 2026 or Q1 2027. Mass production would not begin until 2028.

AI agents instead of apps

Here's where things get wild. Instead of a home screen full of icons, the phone would rely on AI agents that handle tasks directly: booking flights, compiling market data, triaging emails. Kuo shared a concept showing a task-based interface rather than a traditional app grid.

The rationale is straightforward: by owning both hardware and OS, OpenAI can deploy its models without restrictions from Apple or Google. A blend of small on-device models and cloud models would handle requests depending on complexity.

Can OpenAI really challenge the iPhone?

Let's be real: this is a massive bet. No company has successfully launched a new smartphone platform since Android and iPhone nearly two decades ago. Humane's AI Pin and Rabbit's R1 both tried the AI-hardware route and neither achieved commercial scale.

Kuo floats a target of 300 to 400 million annual units, which would pit OpenAI directly against Apple and Samsung. Sam Altman posted on X the same day Kuo published his analysis, writing that it "feels like a good time to seriously rethink" how operating systems are designed.

Earbuds first, phone later

OpenAI's first hardware product remains the "Sweetpea" earbuds, expected in September 2026. The smartphone is a parallel track that raises huge questions about carrier deals, global distribution, and sustained capital investment. With Workspace Agents already rolling out on the software side, OpenAI clearly wants end-to-end control of the AI experience. Whether the world needs a third major phone platform is the billion-dollar question, quite literally.