San Francisco, CA – OpenAI Acquires Jony Ive’s Startup ‘io’ in $6.5 Billion Push into AI Hardware

A Landmark Deal Bridging AI and Industrial Design

In a bold strategic move, OpenAI has acquired “io,” the secretive hardware startup co-founded by legendary former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive and industrial designer Marc Newson. Valued at approximately $6.5 billion in stock, the acquisition marks OpenAI’s most significant foray yet into the world of consumer hardware.

Jony Ive to Lead AI-First Hardware Design

As part of the deal, Jony Ive will join OpenAI in a creative leadership role, where he will head hardware design initiatives with a clear mission: to reimagine the future of AI-native devices. The move reunites Ive with the kind of ambitious, ground-up innovation for which he became globally renowned at Apple.

Sam Altman: “It’s Time to Break Decades-Old Paradigms”

At the press announcement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive presented an early prototype device, offering a tantalizing glimpse of what they described as the company’s vision for the next generation of personal technology. Altman underscored the limitations of current devices, stating that most consumer electronics today are “built on decades-old paradigms” that constrain how AI can truly interact with people.

OpenAI’s goal, he said, is to create devices that are natively designed around AI—seamlessly blending software and hardware to enable more natural, intelligent, and personalized interactions. He went as far as to suggest the forthcoming hardware might be “the coolest piece of technology the world will have ever seen.”

A Synergy of Vision and Capability

The acquisition reflects OpenAI’s expanding vision of delivering AI not just as a cloud-based tool, but as an embodied experience—akin to how smartphones revolutionized mobile computing. By aligning Ive’s design legacy with OpenAI’s AI leadership, the company aims to shape a new category of intelligent devices that could challenge the status quo of modern consumer tech.

Marc Newson’s Role and Product Strategy

While less publicly visible than Ive, Marc Newson is expected to play a critical role in shaping the materials, form factors, and industrial ergonomics of OpenAI’s future products. The design duo has a history of collaboration on iconic Apple products and is now poised to apply that vision to AI-first form factors—potentially including wearables, conversational companions, or entirely new device categories.

The Beginning of AI-First Consumer Electronics

OpenAI’s hardware ambitions are expected to place it in direct competition with established giants like Apple, Google, and Meta, all of which are also exploring AI-native devices. However, with a dedicated hardware vision led by Ive and a cutting-edge software engine in GPT-4o, OpenAI may have a distinct edge in designing hardware that feels as intelligent as the models it runs.

With this acquisition, OpenAI is no longer just a software powerhouse—it is signaling its intention to reshape how we physically interact with AI in everyday life.