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Asus is the latest tech company to redraw its business plans for the next few years as the demand for AI makes them rethink
Asus has confirmed its plans to pause phone launches and make more AI hardware.
The AI demand has a new casualty in the form Asus which is happy to forgo its phone business and focus more on AI and commercial PCs in the market. The company has confirmed its plans to pause phone launches in 2026 which means the ROG Phone and ZenFone series will not be refreshed in the market.
Asus is the latest tech giant to reconsider its business plans for 2026 and the next few years. We have already seen storage brands overhaul their product strategy while some have completely shifted focus on making enterprise-level memory chips that will run the AI data centers.
Another One Bites The AI Dust
The Asus Chairman was speaking at a company event in Taipei recently, where he talked about pausing its phone lineup expansion. So what exactly does Asus plan to do so that its business grows? The brand says it will be investing more in AI-centric systems, robotics and computing devices that can be automated to work.
Asus is one of the many brands that are having second thoughts about keeping the phone business going. The company believes that AI systems will help its business grow rather than phone sales. Asus wants to make AI servers for clients who will be powering various AI models and other hardware designs catering to AI platforms.
Fair to say this doesn’t sound like a short-term strategy whatsoever and it is likely that we might have seen the last of Asus smartphones (and ROG) in the market.
Having said that, the company is not completely giving up on its users. The company has assured that existing users will continue to get updates and service support for all its existing ROG Phone and ZenFone models which means the regular service will be available for those using Asus devices.
Asus is a strong player in the PC segment, where its laptops, and AIOs sell big but it also has other PC components that allow you to build/assemble systems. With the craze to build AI machines, the pivot could be part of a long-term play that might help it grow and also stay relevant in the changing landscape.
January 19, 2026, 12:18 IST
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