"“There are some secret form factors that I cannot tell you about,” the Qualcomm CEO said in an interview with Fortune Editor in Chief Alyson Shontell on the Titans and Disruptors of Industry podcast. “But I think we're working with pretty much all of them.”"
"“Pretty much all of them,” in this case, means the AI companies racing to build the device that replaces the smartphone. OpenAI, Meta, and others that Amon declined to name in an interview from the company's San Diego headquarters. This device won't be something you can hold; it'll be “things you wear”: glasses, jewelry, pins, pendants. And it'll center on the idea that the center of digital life will no longer be a phone but an autonomous agent."
"One problem with that initial report: a smartphone doesn't track with what Amon said about non-phone hardware. And a more recent Kuo note, dated May 5, says the phone chip may now go to MediaTek alone, with mass production fast-tracked to early 2027. Whatever happens to Qualcomm's spot on that specific device, Amon's framing is bigger than any one chip: Qualcomm will provide the silicon underneath AI's push into consumer hardware, period."
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon describes upcoming consumer hardware that moves beyond smartphones toward wearable devices such as glasses, jewelry, pins, and pendants. Digital life is expected to center on an autonomous agent rather than a phone. Amon declines to name specific form factors or partners but says Qualcomm is working with most of them. Reports from TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggest Qualcomm and MediaTek may be designing a custom chip for an OpenAI smartphone, with manufacturing by Luxshare, though confirmations are absent. Later reporting indicates the chip effort may shift to MediaTek alone and production timelines may accelerate. Regardless of specific device details, Qualcomm’s role is positioned as providing underlying silicon for AI expansion into consumer hardware.
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