OpenAI acquires former Apple design head Jony Ive’s startup, to launch first product in 2026

Sam Altman with Jony Ive

OpenAI is going all-in on hardware—and it’s doing it with the help of Apple’s most famous designer. The AI giant is acquiring io, a secretive startup founded by Jony Ive, Apple’s former design chief, along with ex-Apple veterans Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan. The deal, reportedly worth $6.5 billion, will fold about 55 engineers and developers into OpenAI, with the first devices expected to debut in 2026.

Ive himself isn’t joining OpenAI, but his design firm, LoveFrom, will now lead the design direction across OpenAI’s entire product ecosystem—software included. It’s a major design coup, and one that suggests OpenAI isn’t just building tools, but aiming to create the next great product category.

While details on the first device are scarce, CEO Sam Altman insists it’s not meant to replace the smartphone. “It is a totally new kind of thing,” he told Bloomberg, comparing it to how the smartphone didn’t kill the laptop. Ive called it “the coolest piece of technology the world will have ever seen,” and said it reflects everything he’s learned in 30 years of product design.

This is not a Humane Pin repeat. Ive has publicly criticized such devices as “very poor products,” lacking imagination. What OpenAI and io are building, it seems, is something else entirely—hardware designed from the ground up for AI, powered by vision, values, and a sense of responsibility.

As Altman put it, “AI is an incredible technology, but great tools require work at the intersection of technology, design, and understanding people and the world. No one can do this like Jony and his team.”

“What it means to use technology can change in a profound way. I hope we can bring some of the delight, wonder and creative spirit that I first felt using an Apple Computer 30 years ago," Altman added.