New Delhi: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has acquired the ex-Apple designer Jony Ive’s hardware startup company in a $6.4 billion with all equity deal, according to sources. This move is part of OpenAI’s push to move far off smartphones and build new devices optimised for the new era of the AI-first world. OpenAI already has a 23% stake in the company, and the creator of ChatGPT paid almost $5 billion in equity to acquire the remaining 77%.
All 55 employees of io will transition to OpenAI, though Ive himself will not join as an employee. Instead, they will serve as a consultant for Open AI while continuing to lead his independent design studio, LoveFrom.
First of all, io is a hardware company founded in 2023 by the former Apple designer Jony Ive and Sam Altman, aimed at creating devices designed from the ground up for the artificial intelligence, unlike traditional technology products that ass Ai as a feature, io ocuses on making AI the core of the user experience. The company brings together a small,high-calibre team, including a former Apple designer, to explore how the hardware can be reimagined when built specifically for AI-driven interaction.
OpenAI took this step, and they described that the imagination to acquire is to create a family of products for the AGI era, referring to artificial general intelligence systems that match or exceed human capabilities. They have a simple opportunity here to reimagine what it means to use a computer completely.
Sir Jony Ive is known for designing Apple’s most iconic devices, such as the iPhone, iPod, MacBook, and Apple Watch, during his nearly 30-year tenure in the company. They will assume creative and design responsibilities across OpenAI and io, bringing decades of product experience to a new frontier. OpenAI says that it will help to shape interaction with AI, not just through the software, but through impressive consideration as a physical device designed from the ground up for an AGI world.
OpenAI partnered with Apple and, announced in December 2024, has already integrated ChatGPT into Siri and writing tools as a part of Apple’s broader Apple Intelligence initiative. But still, Apple has faced delays in rolling out specific AI features as it attempts to modernize its voice assistant.
