Nothing "Move On" from Smartphones, Prepare AI-Based OS and Products

British technology startup Nothing has secured Series C funding of US$200 million. This investment round was led by the global firm Tiger Global and increased Nothing's valuation to US$1.3 billion. Nothing is widely known for its transparent smartphones, such as the Nothing Phone (1), (2), and most recently the Nothing Phone (3). However, the company founded by Carl Pei, the former co-founder of OnePlus, confirmed that its future focus will not be limited to the mobile phone market.

Supported by new funding, Nothing plans to expand into other product categories that are more closely aligned with artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

"We don't want to be just a smartphone company. Our mission is to create an ecosystem of AI-first devices that truly feel like they belong to the user," Pei said, as quoted by TechCrunch . These products include smartwatches, audio devices, smart glasses, humanoid robots, and electric vehicles (EVs).

Pei also believes that the rapid development of AI in recent years has not been matched by innovation in consumer devices, particularly smartphones. According to him, the majority of current AI products are still "impersonal and too general". Therefore, Nothing is building an AI-based operating system that can adapt to users individually. This system is expected to serve as the foundation for integrating various AI-based devices that the company is currently developing.

However, Pei said that Nothing will still use smartphones  as its main foundation. He said smartphones will still play a major role as the primary device for running artificial intelligence applications in the next three to five years. After that period, he predicts that a new category of devices will emerge, capable of competing with the dominance of smartphones in the consumer market.

The First AI Device 

Nothing's first AI device is scheduled for release in 2025. While Pei hasn't revealed its final form, he has hinted that the device will integrate AI in a new way, beyond just being a smartphone assistant.

One strong candidate is smart glasses, which are currently being developed internally. Nothing's ambition to enter the smart glasses business comes amidst fierce competition. Several tech giants have already taken similar steps with their own products. For example, Apple introduced the Vision Pro, a mixed reality headset positioned as a device of the future. However, this device was still considered too expensive for the general consumer market. On the other hand, Meta collaborates with Ray-Ban to present smart glasses at a more affordable price.

Meanwhile, Samsung is reportedly preparing the Project Moohan XR product, an extended reality (XR) pair of glasses equipped with Google's Android XR operating system.

Its global market share is still below 1 percent, but its performance is more prominent in India, its largest market, with a share of 2 percent. Of that total, just over one million units were shipped in the second quarter of 2025 alone. IDC added that Nothing's global expansion has been slow because around 80 percent of its sales are still concentrated in Asia.

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