OpenAI’s push into the smartphone category is said to have been fast-tracked, as per a new report by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. He notes that the ChatGPT maker is accelerating the mass production of its first “AI agent” smartphone in order to support the year-end IPO it is planning, along with beating the competition in AI agent phones.
The supply chain analyst noted that the mass production of OpenAI’s first phone could occur during the first half of 2027, pulling it forward from an initially projected 2028 release window.
Kuo also notes that if the development of the phone stays on track, shipments across 2027 and 2028 could reach around 30 million units, suggesting OpenAI is aiming to compete at a fairly large scale right from the start.
What to expect from OpenAI phone?
While in his earlier report, Kuo noted that OpenAI is exploring partnerships with both Qualcomm and MediaTek, the analyst now says that latest industry checks suggest MediaTek is positioned to be the sole processor supplier.
Kuo even suggested that the new OpenAI device could be powered by a customised version of the Dimensity 9600 processor, which would be developed on TSMC’s 2nm process that is slated to arrive in the second half of 2026.
The phone is also said to come with LPDDR6 RAM and UFS 5.0 storage in order to ‘ease memory bottlenecks’. For security, the phone will use the pKVM (protected Kernel Virtual Machine) architecture and inline hashing in order to ensure that the data powering its AI agents remains secure and reliable.
The ‘headline spec’ of the phone is said to be a deeply integrated Image Signal Processor (ISP) with an enhanced HDR pipeline. This is said to give the AI agent a real-time visual understanding of the user’s surroundings.
The phone is also said to come with a dual Neural Processing Unit setup for handling AI tasks on-device efficiently. Notably, Kuo had earlier stated that the OpenAI phone will rely on a mix of on-device and cloud AI. While basic tasks could be handled locally, the more compute-heavy workloads could be pushed to the cloud.
Why is OpenAI building a phone?
In his earlier note, Kuo noted that OpenAI is building a smartphone because it still remains the only device category capable of capturing a user’s full, real-time context, which is said to be the most critical input for an AI agent to function properly.
By fully controlling both the operating system and the hardware, OpenAI can deliver a ‘comprehensive AI agent service.’
The upcoming OpenAI phone is also said to be different from current devices that run on app-based interfaces. Instead, OpenAI is said to be developing an intent-driven interface with an AI agent at the centre, where users simply ask to get tasks done, rather than navigating a “pile of apps.”
‘OpenAI’s advantages lie in its consumer brand, years of accumulated user data, and leading AI models. Smartphone hardware is already highly mature, so OpenAI can work with the supply chain to develop the device.’ Kuo noted in his earlier note
