It looks very much as if Apple’s former designer Jony Ive will compete against the company his friend Steve Jobs created as he works with OpenAI on a device that seems to be some form of competitor for the iPhone.
In a post on X, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims OpenAI is working with Qualcomm and MediaTek to build SoCs for smartphones. These chips will be built to deliver faster AI performance. Kuo claims the plan is to achieve mass production by 2028 with the hardware specifications for these devices set to be finalized by early 2027.
You could argue that as well as working with Apple’s former design lead, OpenAI is also taking a leaf out of the company’s processor playbook with this strategy. That’s because just as Apple works with TSMC on chip design, OpenAI intends to work with Qualcomm and MediaTek, which may help it achieve competitive processors far more quickly than it would take if building these things from scratch.