Nothing and OpenAI advance AI hardware to challenge the smartphone

This feature is a snapshot of how the “AI hardware” race is regrouping after the first generation of novelty devices like Humane’s AI Pin and Rabbit r1 failed to land product-market fit. The through-line is that Nothing and OpenAI are now treating AI hardware as long-horizon platform bets rather than flashy gadgets: Nothing raising serious venture money to build a native AI platform, and OpenAI working with Jony Ive on a purpose-built device that isn’t a phone, watch or earbuds.

For AGI watchers, the hardware angle matters because whoever controls the default personal interface to advanced models will shape usage patterns and data flows. A successful “AI phone replacement” becomes a privileged gateway to user context, sensor data and attention. That gives its owner leverage in fine-tuning agents that deeply understand individuals and can act on their behalf in the physical world. We’re seeing early moves to secure that footprint before truly general agents arrive. Whether these devices can avoid the fate of AI Pin and Rabbit depends less on raw model capability and more on solving everyday reliability, privacy and battery-life frictions that doomed the first wave.