Guo Ming-chi: OpenAI wants to build an AI Agent phone; MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Luxshare Precision are key in the supply chain

Guo Ming-chen, an analyst at Hong Kong Tianfeng International Securities, said that OpenAI is working with MediaTek and Qualcomm to develop AI-powered smartphone processors, with Luxshare Precision serving as the exclusive system co-design and manufacturing partner. The plan is to enter mass production as early as 2028. If the news proves true, this would not only be OpenAI’s expansion from software services into the hardware market, but it could also indicate that the smartphone industry is moving into a new era of “AI Agent phones.”

OpenAI wants to make its own phone and redefine the human–machine interaction model

Guo Ming-chen believes the core logic behind OpenAI making a phone is not about building another traditional smartphone, but about redefining how people interact with their phones. In the past, smartphones worked like this: users opened one app after another to separately meet needs such as hailing a ride, ordering food, looking up information, making payments, and sending messages. But in the AI Agent era, what users truly want to do is not “use apps,” but “complete tasks.”

As a result, the phone interface may shift from being app-icon centered to a new model in which an AI agent understands needs, breaks down tasks, calls services, and completes actions.

This is also why OpenAI may choose to build its own phone. Guo Ming-chen said that, to provide a complete AI Agent service, OpenAI needs to master both the operating system and hardware, so that the AI agent can deeply understand the user’s state and perform real-time reasoning and execution across different scenarios. In other words, a phone is not just a terminal device running ChatGPT; it is the most personalized sensing device and agent entry point for continuously capturing the user’s real-time state.

OpenAI’s phone supply chain may be finalized by year-end

From a technical architecture perspective, OpenAI’s AI Agent phone will not simply rely on cloud models, nor will it fully bet on on-device AI. Instead, it will take a mode of high integration between the cloud and device sides. Guo Ming-chen said that because the phone must continuously understand the user’s context, power consumption control, memory hierarchy management, and small-model baseline computation capability will all become key factors in processor design. As for more complex tasks that require massive computing power, they will still be handled by cloud AI.

This also explains why MediaTek and Qualcomm may become joint development partners for OpenAI’s phone processors. Guo Ming-chen expects that the relevant specifications and list of suppliers may be finalized from late 2026 to the first quarter of 2027. If OpenAI’s initial target is the global high-end smartphone market, which has an annual shipment spend size of about 300 million to 400 million units, once AI Agent phones form a new upgrade cycle, it could become long-term growth momentum for the processor supply chain.

OpenAI previously was rumored to partner with Luxshare on developing consumer AI devices

It’s worth noting that this is not the first time OpenAI has been rumored to move into consumer hardware. Reuters last year, citing a report by The Information, said that OpenAI has partnered with Luxshare, an Apple supplier, to develop consumer AI devices. The device was described as pocket-sized, with contextual awareness capabilities, and it will be deeply integrated with OpenAI models. OpenAI also previously acquired hardware startup io Products, founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, for $6.5 billion, showing that its hardware strategy had already begun to take shape.

For Luxshare, the strategic significance of this partnership is especially notable. Guo Ming-chen said that regardless of how hard Luxshare tries, surpassing Foxconn’s assembly position in Apple’s supply chain is still quite difficult. Therefore, if Luxshare can secure an early position in OpenAI’s next-generation AI Agent phone supply chain, it has a chance to become a major beneficiary in the next round of the smartphone era.

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