As OpenAI  faces a major legal threat from Elon Musk over its future, the company behind ChatGPT is reportedly pressing ahead with expanded hardware ambitions. The company has previously been linked to a possible release of AI earbuds later this year or early 2027, but now it's said to be working on a smartphone in partnership with component-makers MediaTek, Qualcomm and Luxshare. Industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo  reported on X  over the weekend that MediaTek and Qualcomm would help design a smartphone chip for the device, while Luxshare would act as a co-design and manufacturing partner.  Most premium Android phones coming out in 2026 will use either Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 or MediaTek's Dimensity 9500 chips, so it makes sense for OpenAI to tap the companies making processors for most of the top-end phones that come out every year.  For years, both MediaTek and Qualcomm have envisioned AI agents as the future of how people will use their phones , handling tasks across…