2025-05-24
OpenAI has announced its largest acquisition to date, a $6.5 billion all-stock deal to acquire io, the AI hardware startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive.
OpenAI wants to expand its business
into the consumer hardware space, aiming to develop innovative AI-powered
devices. About 55 employees from Jony Ive’s AI hardware startup, io, will join
OpenAI.
Founded in 2024 by Jony Ive and other
former Apple engineers he brought from Apple including Evans Hankey, Tang Tan,
and Scott Cannon, io has been collaborating with OpenAI for two years on a new
category of AI devices. The team is reportedly working on a pocket-sized,
screen-free, context-aware device that is not a smartphone or smart glasses.
This device is envisioned as a
personalized AI companion, integrating seamlessly into users' lives.
While Jony Ive will not be joining
OpenAI as an employee, his design firm, LoveFrom, will assume creative and
design responsibilities across all of OpenAI's operations, including software
and hardware. LoveFrom will remain an independent company with other clients.
This acquisition positions OpenAI to
compete more directly with tech giants like Apple and Google in the AI hardware
arena. By integrating advanced AI capabilities with innovative hardware design,
OpenAI aims to redefine user interaction with technology. The first product
from this collaboration is expected to debut in 2026.
For more insights into the
collaboration between Sam Altman and Jony Ive, you can watch their introduction
of io here.
