Sam Altman’s Openai announced on Wednesday that it would purchase a hardware startup called IO from Jony Ive, a former Apple executive who led the design of the iPhone and other iconic products. The transaction is valued at nearly $6.5 billion, a spokesman confirmed to Business Insider.
Ive and his design company Lovefrom worked with Altman and Openai two years ago to start an AI hardware startup a year later with Scott Cannon, Tang Tan and Evans Hankey. Ive left Apple in 2019 for nearly 30 years.
Currently, IO is set to merge with Openai to “work more closely with San Francisco research, engineering and product teams,” the press release states.
A video by Altman and Ive posted on Openai’s social media says that the two high-tech titans are working together to create a “family of AI products.”
Sitting with Ive in a San Francisco cafe, Altman says in the video that he and Ive started talking two years ago about “what the future of AI and a new kind of computers will look like.”
Ive was committed to creating iMacs and iPhones, but was previously a close collaborator with Steve Jobs, who once called him “Apple’s spiritual partner.”
After leaving her full-time job at Apple, Ive launched Lovem with fellow designer Marc Newson. The company counted Apple and Airbnb as their early clients. A company spokesperson said the Ive and Lovefrom plan will continue to work closely with Openai but will remain independent.
Ive was known for his minimalist designs at Apple, but I think it’s the refined iPhone – he recently said he’s in the “decorative age” now. Ive said in a Fireside Chat earlier this month that his recent design work was influenced by a variety of industries, graphics and sound designers.
Altman, who co-founded Openai in 2015, played a key role in shifting Openai from a non-profit research project to a $300 billion AI giant that competes with Apple and Google, among others.
Openai’s recent product slate focuses on AI software in the form of large-scale language models, inference models, image generators, and chatbots.
However, Altman has previously dabbled in hardware space.
Openai CEO invested in Humane, a wearable AI pin intended to replace smartphones, but was eventually surprised after poor reviews and sold the assets to HP.
The Altman’s Cryptocurrency Project, World, is building a new validation network for humans using melon-sized devices called Orbs, which take photos of human iris. World said ORB was designed by Ive’s first adoption at Apple, Thomas Meyerhoffer. Thomas Meyerhofer worked closely with the Design Executive on projects that include IMAC.
In 2023, when asked about artificial intelligence hardware, Altman said he “has no interest in trying to compete with smartphones.”
“Enabling AI is fundamentally new,” Altman said at the time. “I think it’s well worth talking and thinking about what we can make right now. If it turns out there’s no answer, I’d be a bit disappointed.”
Openai said it plans to share more about what the IO is working on next year.
