OpenAI says it's on track to launch a physical device this year

OpenAI is planning to reveal its first physical device in the second half of 2026, a senior executive has said.

Chris Lehane, the company’s chief global affairs officer, told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos that OpenAI is “on track” to unveil a device this year. He said he would have more to say “much later in the year” and that the company is “looking at something in the latter part [of 2026].”

However, he did not give any details about what the device is, what it will look like, or what it will do. He also said that this year was the “most likely” release date but that “we will see how things advance,” in comments first reported by Axios.

Last year reports emerged that OpenAI’s top-secret hardware project — reportedly a palm-sized, screenless personal assistant that is being designed by former Apple $AAPL design chief Jony Ive — was mired in technical snags that could delay its launch.

The device, which has started to sound a lot like an Apple product (made with former Apple employees), would sit on your desk or travel in your pocket, quietly absorbing context and answering questions like a ChatGPT-powered companion. 

Altman has pitched the device as something closer to a new computing category than a gadget. The goal is reportedly to create an “AI companion” that coexists with users and responds naturally, freeing people from their phones rather than replacing them. 

Separately, OpenAI’s finance chief said in a blog on Sunday that 2026 will be the year of “practical adoption” for the company.

“The priority is closing the gap between what AI now makes possible and how people, companies, and countries are using it day to day,” OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar wrote. “The opportunity is large and immediate, especially in health, science, and enterprise, where better intelligence translates directly into better outcomes.”

Friar said OpenAI’s compute — the power needed to train, test, and run its AI models — grew from 0.2 gigawatts in 2023 to about 1.9 GW last year. The company’s annual revenue run rate swelled from $2 billion to $20 billion over the same period.

“This is never-before-seen growth at such scale,” she wrote. “And we firmly believe that more compute in these periods would have led to faster customer adoption and monetization.”

—Shannon Carroll contributed to this article.