OpenAI buys Jony Ive’s io with plans for AI devices led by his design
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The news: OpenAI is acquiring the AI device startup co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive in a nearly USD6.5 billion ($10.1 billion) all-stock deal — its biggest ever — to build a new family of AI-powered devices.
The purchase of io will provide OpenAI with a dedicated unit for hardware development and bring in Ive and about 55 hardware engineers, software developers and manufacturing experts.
Ive will assume deep creative and design responsibilities across OpenAI, while his firm LoveFrom remains independent but will oversee design for all OpenAI software and hardware, The Wall Street Journal reported citing sources.
The context: Ive and CEO Sam Altman had been working together for two years and plan to release their first product in 2026, which in a video posted on the website, they say will be a truly novel type of product.
What they said: In a Bloomberg interview, Altman said AI was such a leap forward that it needs “a new kind of computing form factor,” and called the partnership “crazy, ambitious.”
“I think we have the opportunity here to kind of completely reimagine what it means to use a computer,” he said in the published video.
Ive added: “I am absolutely certain that we are literally on the brink of anew generation of technology that can make us our better selves.”
The numbers: OpenAI had previously acquired a 23% stake in io through a deal made late last year, and is now paying approximately USD5 billion to take full ownership of the startup, sources told The New York Times.
The deal is expected to close this summer pending regulatory approvals.
The sources: OpenAI statement, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal
