OpenAI has acquired io, the hardware start-up founded by former Apple design chief Sir Jony Ive, in a $6.4 billion all-equity deal that signals the company’s bold ambition to shape the next generation of computing beyond the smartphone. The acquisition includes full ownership of io, a company in which OpenAI already held a 23% stake, and brings all 55 of its employees into the fold, the Financial Times reported.
Ive, widely known for designing the iPhone, iPod, and MacBook, won’t join OpenAI as an employee but will serve as a dedicated consultant while continuing to lead his design studio LoveFrom. The company will remain independent and continue its work with clients like Ferrari, but OpenAI will become Ive’s primary focus.
From smartphone legacy to AGI future
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive have set their sights on creating a “family of products for the AGI era,” referring to artificial general intelligence—systems that equal or surpass human cognitive abilities. “We have the opportunity here to completely reimagine what it means to use a computer,” Altman said in a video statement announcing the deal.
The collaboration between Altman and Ive reflects a broader industry effort to redefine the interface between humans and machines in a world increasingly shaped by generative AI. Ive will assume “deep creative and design responsibilities” across both OpenAI and io, according to the company.
Building a new device for the AI-native world
Details about the specific products remain scarce, but insiders suggest the goal is to create “something totally different [from a phone]… a completely new surface.” This could include wearable or voice-activated interfaces that move away from screens and touch inputs, embracing OpenAI’s strength in conversational, generative models.
That vision sets OpenAI apart from other companies, like start-up Humane, whose AI “pin” device flopped commercially and led to its acquisition by HP. Yet, the failure underscored the growing interest in alternatives to smartphones and the search for devices better suited to AI-first interaction.
Apple, for its part, is undertaking its own AI overhaul, recently integrating ChatGPT into its Siri voice assistant and writing tools under its new “Apple Intelligence” initiative. But Apple itself seems uncertain about the smartphone’s long-term future. Eddy Cue, the company’s head of services, recently told a court that “you may not need an iPhone 10 years from now, as crazy as it sounds.”
Ive reflects on smartphone’s “unintended consequences”
In a recent interview, Ive noted he has been reflecting on the negative social and psychological effects of smartphones and social media, particularly as they relate to attention spans, mental health, and interpersonal connection. That line of thinking may influence the design principles guiding OpenAI’s hardware direction—one that prioritizes minimalism, simplicity, and ethical human-machine interaction.
Ive’s departure from Apple in 2019 ended nearly three decades of defining design leadership at the company, during which he became one of Steve Jobs’s closest collaborators and was knighted in 2012. Since then, he has maintained a low profile, focusing on design projects and a new studio complex in San Francisco’s Jackson Square.
The stakes are high—and so is the price tag
At $6.4 billion, the acquisition is one of the most significant hardware-related investments in the AI space to date. It not only underscores OpenAI’s determination to extend its influence beyond software, but also suggests that the future of computing may be less about screens—and more about rethinking how we live with machines.
With Altman and Ive now working in close tandem, the race to develop a post-smartphone device that puts AI at the centre of human experience just got a lot more serious.
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