OpenAI could be making a phone with AI agents replacing apps

TechCrunch / 4/27/2026

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Key Points

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests OpenAI may be working with MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Luxshare to develop a smartphone hardware stack, potentially including its own chip design.
The rumored concept shifts the smartphone experience away from traditional apps toward AI agents that can complete tasks, aiming to bypass restrictions imposed by Apple/Google app pipelines and system access.
Kuo believes the device would be able to continuously understand users’ context, and that owning the hardware could let OpenAI gather more insight into users’ habits than an app would.
The phone would likely combine small on-device AI models with cloud-based models to handle different request types and workloads.
The article frames this as part of a broader industry trend where some companies predict apps may be replaced over time by AI agents, potentially expanding OpenAI’s consumer reach as ChatGPT usage grows.

There have been plenty of rumors about OpenAI’s hardware plans, which involve launching a pair of earbuds. A new note from industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests that the AI company might be working on a phone in collaboration with MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Luxshare.

Kuo, who has reported on several Apple hardware plans in the past, said that OpenAI would develop a smartphone chip with MediaTek and Qualcomm, with Luxshare acting as a co-design and manufacturing partner.

The analyst’s note also suggests that instead of apps, the smartphone could rely on AI agents to complete different tasks. Currently, Apple and Google control the app pipeline and the type of system access they get, restricting some of their functions. Kuo suggests that by creating its own smartphone and hardware stack, OpenAI would be able to use AI in all kinds of features without restrictions. With ChatGPT nearing a billion weekly users, a hardware product for daily use could also bode well for OpenAI’s ambition to reach more consumers.

This thinking is not restricted to OpenAI. Vibe coding app makers are predicting a future that doesn’t involve apps. Nothing CEO Carl Pei said at SXSW that apps will eventually go away.

Kuo believes that OpenAI’s smartphone would be designed to continuously understand users’ context. By offering the phone itself, the company could gain access to more data about users’ habits than an app on the phone could. He also said that the company will work on a mixture of small on-device models and cloud models to handle different types of requests and tasks.

The analyst said the smartphone’s specifications and its component suppliers are expected to be finalized by the year-end or by the first quarter of 2027, with mass production of the device expected to start in 2028.

Earlier this year, OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane said that the company is on track to announce its first hardware product in the second half of 2026. Several reports at that time indicated that the device could be uniquely designed earbuds.

OpenAI didn’t comment on the story at the time of writing.