OpenAI Said to Be Building a Smartphone Chip With Qualcomm and MediaTek, Targeting 400M Units
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says OpenAI is co-developing a custom smartphone chip with Qualcomm and MediaTek, targeting 300–400M units annually by 2028 with Luxshare on system co-design and manufacturing. Qualcomm shares jumped as much as 12% on the report.
OpenAI is co-developing a custom smartphone chip with Qualcomm and MediaTek, with Luxshare handling system co-design and manufacturing, according to a Monday note from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities. The chip targets 300–400 million units annually by 2028, an app-free design built around an always-on AI agent.
The Plan
According to Kuo, mass production is targeted for 2028, with specs and suppliers finalized by late 2026 or early 2027. None of the named companies have confirmed the report. Qualcomm shares spiked as much as 12% intraday on the note, recouping later in the week as additional reporting from Reuters and Bloomberg surfaced. MediaTek and Luxshare also moved sharply higher.
Why It's a Signal
If real, OpenAI is taking the Apple playbook — own the silicon, the OS layer, and the distribution — and aiming it directly at smartphones, the most lucrative consumer compute platform on earth. The 400M-unit target is one-third of global iPhone shipments. It also explains why OpenAI hired ex-Apple design chief Jony Ive's team in 2024 and why Sam Altman has hinted for a year that "the next ChatGPT will not be an app."
DecryptWhat to Watch
Two milestones determine whether this is real. One, formal supplier announcements by Q1 2027 — if Qualcomm or MediaTek confirms a custom OpenAI SKU on an earnings call, the project is committed. Two, the OS / agent integration story; Kuo's note hints at an "app-free" agent UI, which would require a custom Android fork or a brand-new OS. The latter is where this gets interesting — and where Apple, Google, and Samsung start to react.
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