OpenAI acquires Jony Ive’s AI hardware firm io

OpenAI‘s acquisition of Jony Ive’s hardware company io marks a significant strategic move into the physical device market, potentially redefining how consumers interact with AI technology. The $6.5 billion deal brings 55 engineers from Ive’s team to OpenAI while establishing LoveFrom as the design authority for all OpenAI products—signaling the AI company’s ambition to create entirely new hardware categories rather than simply competing with existing smartphones.

The big picture: OpenAI is acquiring io, the hardware company founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, in a deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion.

• The acquisition brings approximately 55 hardware engineers, software developers, and manufacturing experts from io to OpenAI, including former Apple leaders Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan.
• While Ive himself won’t join OpenAI as an employee, his design firm LoveFrom will take over design responsibilities for all OpenAI products, including software.

Product timeline: The first devices resulting from this acquisition are scheduled to launch in 2026.

• Altman described the upcoming product as “a totally new kind of thing” rather than an iPhone competitor, comparing the relationship to how smartphones didn’t eliminate laptops.
• Ive has already provided Altman with a prototype that the OpenAI CEO called “the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.”

What they’re saying: Ive has been critical of recent AI hardware attempts, setting high expectations for OpenAI’s upcoming products.

• “There has been an absence of new ways of thinking expressed in products,” Ive told Bloomberg, dismissing devices like the Humane Pin and Rabbit R1 as “very poor products.”
• “I am absolutely certain that we are literally on the brink of a new generation of technology that can make us our better selves,” Ive stated in a video.

Behind the scenes: The partnership between Ive and OpenAI has been developing for longer than publicly known.

• According to The Wall Street Journal, Altman and LoveFrom have been collaborating for two years, exploring various device concepts including headphones and camera-equipped hardware.
• The first product has “just completely captured our imagination,” according to Ive, suggesting a significant breakthrough in AI hardware design.