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OpenAI, boasting a valuation exceeding $800 billion, is not content to confine itself within the realm of a mere "dialog box".

Image Source: Ming-Chi Kuo

On May 5, 2026, Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities, disclosed that OpenAI is likely to expedite the development of its inaugural AI Agent-powered phone, with mass production potentially commencing in the first half of 2027. If development proceeds smoothly, shipments are projected to reach approximately 30 million units between 2027 and 2028.

In fact, around 2023, as large model technologies gradually matured, "AI phones" emerged as a major trend in the smartphone industry. However, to this day, most phones have merely incorporated fragmented AI capabilities and have not yet ushered in the true "AiPhone" era.

Against this backdrop, OpenAI, as a leader in the AI field, appears to be leveraging its deep technical expertise and significant influence to establish a development model for smartphone manufacturers.

However, it is crucial to note that the smartphone industry's inability to transcend the "AI-enabled features" stage is not solely attributable to outdated thinking among some manufacturers but also to the challenges of breaking through entrenched ecosystems. For OpenAI, creating innovative phone hardware is not the primary hurdle; rather, winning the support of a vast developer community will be a formidable challenge.

01

Why is OpenAI Doubling Down on Phones Before Its AI 'Companion' Arrives?

When launching the original iPhone in 2007, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs quoted Alan Kay, a pioneer in computer graphical interfaces, to elucidate Apple's product philosophy: "People who are serious about software should make their own hardware."

Image Source: Apple

OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman shares a similar perspective. In October 2025, during a conversation with Ben Horowitz, he stated that OpenAI's objective is not to create a "super app" but to construct an AI super system that integrates cutting-edge research, ultra-large-scale infrastructure, and consumer-grade products.

Image Source: OpenAI

To fully unlock ChatGPT's potential, OpenAI is aggressively venturing into the hardware sector. In May 2025, OpenAI acquired AI hardware company io, founded by former Apple chief designer Jony Ive, for $6.5 billion, with plans to launch an AI "companion" device in 2026.

Image Source: Apple

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, OpenAI's AI "companion" device will be as compact and elegant as an iPod Shuffle, featuring a neck-worn design equipped with a camera and microphone to monitor the external environment. It will lack a display and require connection to a phone or PC.

In response, Sam Altman stated that an ubiquitous AI "companion" represents the ideal product form for ChatGPT. "If this device can accompany you everywhere, equipped with various sensors to truly understand your surroundings, continuously track information, and enable you to effortlessly execute complex operations with a simple command—then you can envision a completely different device form."

Image Source: Humane

In fact, Sam Altman had previously invested in AI hardware company Humane. In 2023, the company launched the world's first wearable AI smart hardware product, AI Pin, powered by the GPT-4 large model, supporting voice and gesture interactions, and displaying information via projection.

Unfortunately, due to underwhelming performance, heavy reliance on cloud-based large models, and frequent issues like lag, overheating, and disconnections, AI Pin failed to gain market traction. Today, AI Pin has been discontinued and is no longer supported, effectively becoming obsolete.

From this perspective, OpenAI's decision to pursue "AI phones" instead appears to stem from the realization that, given current limitations in computing power and battery life, compact AI "companions" are unlikely to become the computing hubs of the AI era overnight.

In contrast, while the smartphone industry has long entered a mature phase, phones remain the central gateway to entertainment, social interaction, and life services. Therefore, compared to building entirely new hardware from scratch, leveraging the established smartphone ecosystem allows OpenAI to swiftly launch AI products and services for mass users with lower barriers.

02

On the Road to AI Phones, Doubao Becomes OpenAI's "Mentor"

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, compared to traditional smartphones, OpenAI's phone will undergo three major transformations: Apps will evolve into Agents; entry points will evolve into goals; and static grids will evolve into dynamic task flows. The core interaction logic will shift from "tool invocation" to "goal-driven."

Image Source: Ming-Chi Kuo

In simpler terms, traditional phones are merely task-processing terminals where users must learn how to use each App and manually connect multiple tools to complete tasks. In OpenAI's vision, the phone will become a "decision-maker," where users only need to set goals, and AI will automatically handle all tool invocations, process flows, and details, ultimately delivering the results.

In fact, OpenAI's vision for AI phones is not a far-fetched sci-fi concept. Previously, the engineering prototype developed by ByteDance's Doubao team had already validated the feasibility of evolving AI phones from "functional assistants" to "proactive decision-making hubs."

Image Source: Doubao

In December 2025, ByteDance partnered with ZTE to launch the "Doubao phone," the nubia M153, which leverages the Doubao large model's capabilities and GUI simulation click technology to enable cross-app automation, allowing tasks to be executed with a single voice command.

Due to its futuristic concept, the Doubao phone became an instant market sensation, commanding significant premiums on secondhand platforms.

Commenting on the product, Luo Yonghao said, "I don't know if the Doubao phone will succeed, but ByteDance's bold first step is remarkable and deserves praise. AI assistants will become ubiquitous, and our lives will be inseparable from them. Future generations will remember this historic day."

Notably, as a latecomer, OpenAI did not simply imitate the Doubao phone but introduced hardware innovations.

The nubia M153 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, built on TSMC's N3E process, featuring an integrated Hexagon NPU with 80 TOPS of AI computing power, 16GB LPDDR5X RAM, and 512GB UFS4.0 storage. It also includes a triple-camera rear setup.

Image Source: Ming-Chi Kuo

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, OpenAI's phone will feature a custom MediaTek Dimensity 9600 processor, built on TSMC's N2P process, with a dual-NPU architecture, LPDDR6 RAM, and UFS5.0 storage to enhance data transfer efficiency, along with pKVM + inline hashing for security. Additionally, its ISP will focus on improving high dynamic range output for better real-world perception.

A side-by-side comparison reveals that while the Doubao phone's underlying configuration is similar to traditional flagship phones, its core competitiveness lies in system-level AI integration, enabling cross-app operations.

In contrast, OpenAI's phone reconstructs its underlying configuration around AI technology, enhancing on-device computing power, security, and camera capabilities. This suggests that OpenAI's phone may surpass the Doubao phone in capabilities, allowing deeper integration into users' daily lives and work.

03

AI Phone Hardware is Mature, but Developers Pose a Challenge

The successful mass production of the Doubao phone largely demonstrates that the underlying technology for "AI phones" is nearing maturity.

In response, Li Xiangdong, an AI product expert at Honor's MagicOS, stated in an April 2026 interview, "The fact that a Doubao-like phone wasn't first created by a smartphone manufacturer isn't a capability issue but rather a difference in business logic and standards for user experience."

Image Source: Doubao

The primary reason smartphone manufacturers have not immediately created products similar to the Doubao phone is that many popular national-level apps have not opened their API interfaces. Rashly applying GUI simulation click technology could easily trigger developer resistance, negatively impacting user experience.

Due to concerns over disrupting existing App traffic entry points, data sovereignty, and security controls, the Doubao phone was soon "blacklisted" by national-level apps like WeChat, Meituan, and Alipay within days of launch.

In response, at Tencent's 2026 annual employee conference, CEO Pony Ma stated that Tencent has always been firmly opposed to using black-market plugins to record and upload user screen activity to the cloud, "as it is extremely unsafe and irresponsible."

Next, OpenAI's phone will also face similar challenges. While building its own hardware grants OpenAI system-level permissions, the lack of active developer adaptation to AI technology makes it difficult to connect the existing fragmented mobile internet ecosystem and create a "goal-driven" AI phone.

However, unlike isolated smartphone manufacturers, OpenAI possesses powerful foundational models. Based on these, OpenAI hopes to bypass the mobile internet ecosystem and establish a new AI ecosystem.

Image Source: OpenAI

In October 2025, OpenAI hosted a Developer Day event, launching the Apps SDK, which allows developers to integrate third-party applications into the ChatGPT interface. Subsequently, OpenAI introduced an app directory feature, enabling users to directly invoke external apps like Spotify, Adobe, and Apple Music from the relevant page.

In contrast, while ByteDance is planning the second-generation Doubao phone, its lack of a native AI app ecosystem forces it to negotiate with mobile app developers.

In early 2026, 36Kr's "Smart Emergence" reported that to overcome the "blacklisting" issue, the Doubao phone team was negotiating with mainstream internet platforms and had already secured certain common permissions from ride-hailing, food delivery, and ticketing companies.

Clearly, unlike most smartphone manufacturers, which view phones as the sole carrier for AI technology, OpenAI hopes to leverage ChatGPT's strong influence to attract developers to proactively create native AI applications, which can then empower phone products.

As Li Xiangdong put it, "As AI evolves, especially with the trend toward AI-driven automatic execution and proactive services centered on user intent, the original business models and traffic distribution will inevitably be reshaped. All parties will eventually reach a new balance, but the process requires exploration and adjustment."

Whether OpenAI's phone can usher in the "AiPhone" era and disrupt traditional smartphone manufacturers like Apple remains uncertain. However, it is foreseeable that as more influential AI companies enter the smartphone industry, the mobile internet ecosystem will be transformed, and smartphones may downgrade from a mass computing platform to a mere AI entry point.

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