OpenAI’s Big Bet That Jony Ive Can Make AI Hardware Work

OpenAI has fully acquired Io, a joint venture it cocreated last year with Jony Ive, the famed British designer behind the sleek industrial aesthetic that defined the iPhone and more than two decades of Apple products.

In a nearly 10-minute video posted to X on Wednesday, Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the Apple pioneer’s “creative collective” will “merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering, and product teams in San Francisco.” OpenAI says it’s paying $5 billion in equity to acquire Io.

The promotional video included musings on technology from both Ive and Altman, set against the golden-hour backdrop of the streets of San Francisco, but the two never share exactly what it is they’re building. “We look forward to sharing our work next year,” a text statement at the end of the video reads. Given the pair’s emphasis on building a hardware device for the AI era, and Ive’s pedigree at Apple, it’s likely a consumer-facing product.

Io launched last spring as part of a joint project between OpenAI and Ive’s design firm LoveFrom. In the fourth quarter of last year, Io and OpenAI entered into an official agreement for OpenAI to receive a 23 percent stake in Io. Now OpenAI is buying the entity outright.

The merger is a slightly complicated one. The Io team was made up of 55 people prior to this announcement. Now it will expand to include both Io and OpenAI employees—hardware and software engineers, physicists, scientists, and “experts in product development and manufacturing,” according to a blog post on OpenAI’s website. Ive and Lovefrom will manage the creative design process. But Ive will remain independent, OpenAI says, and his firm LoveFrom will continue to operate as a separate entity. The Io team will instead report to Peter Welinder, OpenAI’s vice president of product, who has worked at OpenAI for eight and a half years.

Io’s founding team has major design chops. Beyond Ive, the founders include Evans Hankey and Tang Tan, who both worked at Apple. Those who’ve worked closely with them say they’re known to hire people whom they believe have exceptional taste.

By bringing on Ive, OpenAI is officially embarking on what is likely one of the more ambitious AI hardware project to date. A number of other major tech companies, including Meta and Google, have tried developing AI-powered devices such as smart glasses in recent years, but mainstream adoption of the technology has been slow and some devices have been plagued by glitches.

Humane, another high-profile AI hardware startup founded by former Apple employees, debuted a wearable device in late 2023. Reviewers later found the device, a pin, was susceptible to overheating and a number of other issues. Less than two years later Humane’s devices were pulled from the market, and its operating system software and patents were sold to printer giant HP.

The joint effort between Altman and Ive was spurred by advancements in AI and also compute power. In its blog post, OpenAI wrote that “computers are now seeing, thinking and understanding.”

Altman reportedly has hardware ambitions beyond the generative AI software his company develops and sells, and Ive has seemingly been eager to make new imprints in the design world since he left Apple in 2019. “I have a growing sense that everything I have learned over the past 30 years has led me to this moment,” Ive said in the video. “While I am both anxious and excited about the responsibility of the substantial work ahead, I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such an important collaboration.”