OpenAI Acquires Jony Ive’s AI Hardware Company in Landmark $6.5 Billion Deal
In a move that blurs the line between sleek industrial design and artificial intelligence innovation, OpenAI has acquired io, the AI hardware startup co-founded by legendary former Apple design chief Jony Ive. The deal, reportedly valued at nearly $6.5 billion, will see around 55 engineers, designers, and manufacturing specialists join OpenAI, including notable Apple alumni Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan.
While Ive himself won’t be joining OpenAI full-time, his design firm LoveFrom will play a central role in the future of AI design—taking over all design responsibilities across OpenAI’s product portfolio, including software. The acquisition marks one of the most significant design-lead hardware integrations in recent memory and signals OpenAI’s ambitions to expand beyond its software stronghold and into tangible, consumer-facing devices.
A New Frontier in AI Hardware
“This is not about building an iPhone killer,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. “In the same way that the smartphone didn’t make the laptop go away, I don’t think our first thing is going to make the smartphone go away. It is a totally new kind of thing.”
Though full details of the first device remain under wraps, Altman and Ive have hinted at a bold reimagining of what personal technology could be in the age of AI. From smart headphones to camera-equipped devices, prototypes have already begun circulating behind closed doors. “Jony recently gave me one of the prototypes of the device to take home,” Altman revealed. “I think it is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.”
Ive, who played a pivotal role in shaping the iPhone, iMac, and Apple Watch, was less kind when discussing current competitors in the space. “There has been an absence of new ways of thinking expressed in products,” he told Bloomberg, calling recent AI hardware like the Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1 “very poor products.”
Design Meets Deep Tech
The merger of io into OpenAI represents a long-standing collaboration between Altman and Ive, who, according to reports, have been working together informally for two years. In a joint statement, the duo explained the intent behind the acquisition: “We gathered together the best hardware and software engineers, the best technologists, physicists, scientists, researchers and experts in product development and manufacturing.”
The core team from io will now integrate fully with OpenAI’s research, engineering, and product development arms in San Francisco. For Ive, this moment feels like the culmination of a career: “I have a growing sense that everything I have learned over the last 30 years has led me to this moment.”
OpenAI, known for its groundbreaking GPT models and ChatGPT platform, has long signalled interest in pushing AI beyond the digital space. With this acquisition, it is poised to do exactly that—with some of the most iconic hardware minds of the 21st century now on board.
Launch Timeline and Next Steps
The first hardware products from this collaboration are expected to debut in 2026, though anticipation is already mounting in Silicon Valley and beyond. Altman, in a nod to the project’s transformative potential, concluded: “AI is an incredible technology, but great tools require work at the intersection of technology, design, and understanding people and the world. No one can do this like Jony and his team.”
As the AI arms race intensifies, OpenAI’s move into hardware—backed by iconic design talent and a $6.5 billion investment—positions the company at the bleeding edge of what could be the next great era of personal technology.