Qualcomm CEO says company is working with OpenAI, Meta, and other major AI firms on secret wearable devices to replace the smartphone

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon disclosed in a podcast interview that the company is collaborating with "pretty much all" major AI companies—including OpenAI and Meta—on undisclosed hardware form factors, describing them as wearables like glasses, jewelry, pins, and pendants that will center on autonomous agents rather than traditional phones.

The devices are designed around what Amon calls the "ecosystem of you": wearable cameras and earbuds that feed context (what you see, hear, and say) to an AI agent that performs tasks like paying bills, comparing product prices, and rescheduling appointments.

ByteDance's Doubao Mobile Assistant, launched in December on the ZTE-made Nubia M153 handset, sold out its initial run of roughly 30,000 units, with ByteDance planning a second-generation device for the second quarter of 2026; Amon framed this as evidence that "the control point of the industry is changing" from operating systems and app stores to the agents users select.