OpenAI is acquiring former Apple design chief Jony Ive's AI hardware startup io in a blockbuster $6.5 billion all-stock acquisition that could redefine how we interact with artificial intelligence.
Key Points
- OpenAI is acquiring Jony Ive's hardware company io for $6.5 billion in stock
- Ive and his LoveFrom team will take over design responsibilities across OpenAI
- First products from the collaboration expected to launch in 2026
Two years ago, a quiet collaboration began between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and legendary Apple designer Jony Ive. That partnership has now evolved into OpenAI's largest acquisition to date — the complete absorption of io, a hardware startup Ive founded just one year ago with former Apple executives Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan.
"I have a growing sense that everything I have learned over the last 30 years has led me to this moment," said Ive in today's announcement. It's a significant statement from the designer who shaped two decades of iconic Apple products including the iPhone, iPod, and MacBook Pro.
The deal positions Ive and his design collective LoveFrom to assume "deep design and creative responsibilities" across both OpenAI and io, effectively making him the chief creative voice for the AI company's future products. While technically not becoming an OpenAI employee, Ive's influence will extend across the organization's entire design approach.
For OpenAI, the acquisition represents a major strategic push into hardware. The company previously owned a 23% stake in io, but the full acquisition signals a belief that AI's future extends beyond current devices and interfaces.
"I think we have the opportunity here to completely reimagine what it means to use a computer," Altman says in the announcement video. "We have magic intelligence in the cloud. If I wanted to ask ChatGPT something right now about something we had talked about earlier, think about what would happen. I would reach down, get on my laptop, open it up, launch a web browser, start typing... and I would wait. That is at the limit of what the current tool of a laptop can do. This technology deserves something much better."
While specific products remain under wraps, both Altman and Ive hint at devices that will fundamentally change how people interact with AI. Altman describes a prototype Ive recently gave him as "the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen" — high praise from the leader of an organization that has already revolutionized the AI landscape.
The 55-person io team, described as a collection of hardware and software engineers, physicists, researchers, and manufacturing experts, will now work more directly with OpenAI's research and engineering teams in San Francisco. The first products from this collaboration are expected to debut in 2026.
This deal represents a significant competitive shift in the tech industry. Apple shares fell 1.8% on the news, reflecting investor concerns about Ive's creative talents now being directed toward a potential competitor. The acquisition also positions OpenAI against other major tech companies pursuing AI hardware strategies, including Meta, which has hired former OpenAI robotics lead Caitlin Kalinowski, and Amazon, which invested in robotics startup Physical Intelligence alongside OpenAI last year.
For a generation raised on traditional computers and smartphones, the promise of a fundamentally new computing paradigm built around AI capabilities is both exciting and disruptive. As Ive puts it in the announcement: "I am reminded of a time, three decades ago, when I emigrated to America. As a designer, I was drawn to the exhilarating and innocent optimism of Silicon Valley, to collaborate with people driven to create amazing products that elevate humanity."
Whether io's mysterious first product lives up to these lofty aspirations remains to be seen. But with Ive's design pedigree and OpenAI's technical capabilities now fully aligned, this partnership has the potential to create the kind of transformative technology that only comes along once a decade.