Asus Chairman Plans to Go “All in AI” and Stop Making Phones

Among the tech companies redrawing their business plans, Asus is the latest in this list. It’s the demand for AI that forces them to rethink. 

The last year has seen storage brands remodeling their product plans and some even entirely turned their focus on making AI chips for AI data centres. Asus is also reconsidering their business strategies for the upcoming years. 

For fans of the Zenfone and ROG Phone series, the news marks a bittersweet turning point. While the company promised to continue supporting current users with software updates and warranties, the era of new Asus handsets appears to be over for the foreseeable future.

Another Player in the AI Race

The tech industry experiences another dramatic shift because of high AI demand. To channel all the focus on AI products and services, Asus has decided to abandon their phone business. As the company confirms, there will be no phone launch for models like the ROG and ZenFone series in 2026. 

Recently at the company even in Taipei, the chairman of Asus shared his plans about pausing its phone business. So what exactly are Asus’ plans that can make its business expand? The brand intends to invest in more robotics, AI-centric technologies, and AI computing devices.

A Strategic “Sacrifice” for the AI Revolution

Asus plans to capitalize on what Shih describes as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity. The company is redirecting its resources toward “Physical AI”—a field that includes AI-driven robotics, smart glasses, and enterprise-level AI servers.

Shih told employees,

The future world will be filled with ‘artificial brains’ with self-learning capabilities.

The chairman emphasized that to stay relevant in the “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” Asus must push its limits.

This move is as much about business as it is about innovation. The global smartphone market is becoming crowded, with razor-thin profit margins and fierce competition from Chinese brands. On the other hand, Asus has already seen its AI server revenue more than double in previous quarters. To the company, this means that the “brains and hands” of future machines are a much more rewarding bet than the smart pockets of consumers.

What Happens to Zenfone and ROG Phone?

As per the announcement, the company puts a “pause” on new models for 2026. But many industry insiders view this as a long-time withdrawal on a big margin from the mobile market. 

The Zenfone series gained popularity for its compact design and the ROG Phone set the gold standard for mobile gaming. Well, the high pricing of specific parts have made the production of these niche devices challenging. In particular, a global shortage of memory chips has driven up prices for DRAM, the high-speed memory used in phones. Chipmakers are currently prioritizing high-margin AI chips for data centers over the standard modules used in consumer electronics. 

For a company like Asus, continuing to fight for a 2.8% global market share in smartphones no longer makes financial sense when those same chips can be used in high-profit AI servers.

Focusing on “Physical AI” and Smart Devices

So, what exactly does “Physical AI” look like for Asus? The company is doubling down on two major areas: AI Robotics and AI Glasses.

By leveraging the engineering expertise gained from years of building high-performance gaming phones, Asus hopes to create the “most powerful AI glasses” and “smartest robots” on the market. The idea is to transition talent from the smartphone division to work on commercial laptops and edge computing devices that can operate with minimal human intervention.

Asus isn’t just building hardware; it’s aiming to become a “Total Solutions Provider.” This includes everything from cloud supercomputing services to “Generative AI Foundry Services” that help other companies build their own custom AI models.

A Risky but Necessary Bet

The pivot is undoubtedly risky. Abandoning a consumer brand built over a decade is a major gamble. Yet, as PC-centric brands struggle to find sustainable profit in the mobile sector, Asus’s choice to “declutter” its portfolio might be its only path to long-term survival.

For the millions of current Asus phone owners, the company has pledged “comprehensive after-sales support.” You won’t find a Zenfone 13 on the shelves this year, but your current device will continue to receive the updates it was promised.

As the tech landscape shifts from mobile-first to AI-first, Asus is betting that its future lies in the “artificial brains” of tomorrow rather than the screens of today. Whether this sacrifice leads to a rebirth or a quiet exit remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the smartphone world will be a little less “incredible” without them.Keep reading Daily Info articles for the latest tech news!