Asus pauses smartphone development for AI and PCs
Asus Chairman Jonney Shih has confirmed a pause in smartphone development. Resources are to be reallocated to PCs and "Physical AI."
Asus Chairman Jonney Shih on stage at the year-end gala
(Image: Asus)
Asus will not be releasing any new smartphones for now. This was confirmed by the chairman of the Taiwanese tech group, Jonney Shih (actually Shih Chung-tang), at a “Year-End Gala 2025” in Taipei. Instead, Asus intends to focus more strongly on AI in the future. Corresponding reports have been circulating since the beginning of January.
Focus on the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”
As reported by Taiwan Inside and Money UDN, Shih said in an interview before the gala that the research and development resources freed up by pausing smartphone development will be completely reallocated to the areas of commercial PCs and “Physical AI.” The company aims to leverage the opportunities of the fourth industrial revolution, as these offer greater growth potential.
In the course of the gala, which bore the motto “AI Shapes the Future,” Shih called on the company's employees to “seize this unique opportunity and consistently implement the market strategy 'Ubiquitous AI. Incredible Possibilities.'” He emphasized that the world of the future will be shaped by “artificial brains” with self-learning capabilities and that Asus must push AI to its limits to further develop product innovations and operational processes.
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Robotics and AI Glasses
Shih explained that “AI robots and robotics” as well as “AI glasses” are two areas the company will explore. Looking at the financial report for 2025, a reason for the shift becomes apparent: Despite geopolitical and customs challenges in the reporting year, Asus achieved a total revenue of NT$738.91 billion (approximately 20 billion euros), an increase of 26.1 percent compared to the previous year. This is attributed to proactive development in the AI sector. The AI server business even achieved its targeted growth of 100 percent, the report states.
Taiwan Inside speculates that the company could leverage its experience from the mobile phone division in Qualcomm platform development for commercial laptops based on the Snapdragon X platform. Asus might develop the announced “physical AI devices” based on Qualcomm's Dragonwing Embedded platform.
Memory Crisis
Shih also addressed the ongoing memory crisis and admitted that current laptops and other products could become pricier. The company plans to rely on “design thinking and supply chain collaboration” to mitigate the impact of rising RAM prices.
(afl)
