Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said the chipmaker is collaborating with “pretty much all” leading AI companies—including OpenAI and Meta—on a wave of secretive consumer devices built around autonomous agents rather than smartphones. In a podcast interview, Amon described wearable form factors such as glasses, earbuds, and pins that gather contextual audio and visual data for on-device AI, part of what he called an “ecosystem of you.” His remarks arrived alongside shifting analyst commentary from TF International’s Ming-Chi Kuo, who first reported Qualcomm and MediaTek were co-developing a custom chip for an OpenAI phone aimed at 2028, before suggesting MediaTek could take over with production as early as 2027. Qualcomm shares surged after the initial note, though neither company confirmed details. Amon argued the broader opportunity eclipses any single device, positioning Qualcomm to supply the silicon underpinning AI agents across categories. He pointed to ByteDance’s Doubao-powered phone in China as an early sign of the transition and said 2026 will mark the mainstream arrival of agents, with adoption accelerating through 2028, even as competition and privacy concerns intensify.
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