Doubao AI Agent Phone Goes on Sale at WAIC with Initial Stock of 500,000 Units
Claire Weston
ByteDance and Nubia will launch the Doubao AI Agent Phone at Shanghai's WAIC in July, with a first batch of 500,000 units — more than ten times the prior model's run, signaling ByteDance is moving AI phones from proof-of-concept to mass production.
What exactly is this phone?
The Doubao AI Agent Phone is built by ByteDance and ZTE's Nubia sub-brand. Its core pitch: ByteDance's Doubao large language model runs directly on-device.
It will debut and go on sale during WAIC 2026 (July 17–20, Shanghai).
Shanghai Securities News, citing industry sources, reports 80,000–100,000 units already produced, with a first-batch target of 500,000 units.
Why does 500,000 units matter?
Nubia's previous model, the M153, launched in December 2025 with just 30,000 units — all sold out on day one.
This means → the new batch is over ten times larger, a clear escalation from "testing the waters" to a full-scale bet.
In plain terms = last round was a market stall; this round is a factory run.
Is more than one player claiming the "first AI Agent phone"?
Stepfun (阶跃星辰, a Shanghai LLM unicorn) announced it will unveil "a new answer for the Agent era" at WAIC. The industry widely expects an AI smartphone.
Nubia SVP Ni Fei previously declared on Weibo that "the world's first AI Agent smartphone comes from Nubia," with a mass-production flagship also set for WAIC launch.
This reflects a scramble to define what an AI Agent phone even is — who ships first and delivers the best experience matters more than who claims the title first.
What is the relationship between Stepfun and Nubia?
Media reports conflict: Zhidongxi describes Nubia as the contract manufacturer for Stepfun's Agent phone; LanJing Finance links Stepfun's device to Huaqin Technology instead, calling the two "deeply bound."
LanJing treats Nubia's launch as a separate event, not a Stepfun sub-project.
In plain terms = the partnership map is still blurry. Who stands next to whom on the WAIC stage will be the real answer.
What decides who wins this race?
Industry insiders say the competition has shifted from hardware specs to the real-world experience of on-device AI models.
This means → stacking chips and memory is no longer enough. Whether AI actually works well when a user picks up the phone is what will make or break these products.
The Shanghai municipal government confirmed on July 7 that AI Agent smartphones will be a featured exhibit at WAIC — a signal of policy-level backing for the category.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.