OpenAI has hired Jony Ive, the renowned designer of Apple’s iPhone, to spearhead a new hardware initiative for the AI company behind ChatGPT.
OpenAI announced it is acquiring io, a product and engineering firm co-founded by Ive, in a deal valued at approximately $6.5 billion.
Sam & Jony introduce io pic.twitter.com/ej5K59kJq3
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) May 21, 2025
Mark Gurman and Shirin Ghaffary for Bloomberg News:
The purchase — the largest in OpenAI’s history — will provide the company with a dedicated unit for developing AI-powered devices. Acquiring the secretive startup, named io, also will secure the services of Ive and other former Apple designers who were behind iconic products such as the iPhone.
“I have a growing sense that everything I’ve learned over the last 30 years has led me to this place and to this moment,” Ive said in a joint interview with OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman. “It’s a relationship and a way of working together that I think is going to yield products and products and products.”
For the British-born designer, the move marks a high-profile return to a consumer technology industry he helped pioneer. Working for years alongside Steve Jobs, he crafted the look and feel of the modern smartphone, in addition to the iPod, iPad and Apple Watch. He left Apple in 2019.
When Ive departed Apple, CEO Tim Cook pitched the idea that the two parties would remain collaborators. But they never released a product together after Ive’s exit. And now the designer is embarking on a new collaboration with Altman, who he called a “rare visionary.”
MacDailyNews Take: A “rare visionary.” You know, like Apple used to have a long, long time ago.
OpenAI is going to create a product at a level of quality that “has never happened before in consumer hardware,” Altman said. “AI is such a big leap forward in terms of what people can do that it needs a new kind of computing form factor to get the maximum potential out of it,” he said.
Apple shares dropped as much as 2.3% in New York on Wednesday.
As part of the deal, OpenAI is paying $5 billion in equity for io. The balance of the nearly $6.5 billion stems from a partnership reached in the fourth quarter of last year that involved OpenAI acquiring a 23% stake in io.
Separately, OpenAI’s startup fund also invested in Ive’s company at that time. Billionaire philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs is an io backer as well, through her firm the Emerson Collective. Other investors include Sutter Hill Ventures, Thrive Capital, Maverick Capital and SV Angel. Altman doesn’t have equity in io, OpenAI said.
The deal is expected to be completed this summer, pending regulatory approvals.
MacDailyNews Take: Meanwhile, back at the ranch:
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
It will be wafer thin…
This new bromance is disgusting and feels like betrayal.
Feels like Altman is buying a cool friend.
Ive isn’t a cheap date.
A product is a year away. It could be anything, or nothing. Or something weird.
We’ll see.
This is bad for the fruit company. Did anyone watch Google I/O yesterday? Does anyone think Apple is remotely REMOTELY close to anything in that neighborhood?? Apple is 2-3 years behind in this race with far too few GPU’s and no one with world-beating insights into AI. It so bad.
Overly Corni ! Way too much Buttering up !
And as for SF… ya its a true symbol of cultural progression!!.. towards a gigantic cliff! …the place is ruined , its turning into Zombie town!
As for Lovefrom and Ives… exactly what has he achieved past some of his work at Apple ?
Lets see what this new magic will be !???
I really respect Ive’s work…but as noted, his time at Lovefrom didn’t produce much. And quite frankly, he did his best work with Steve Jobs. After Steve died, his work didn’t quite have the same punch.
I too agree that the video was a bit over the top. Saying that Sam was so humble (which may be true) but then have the Jony spend so much time praising Sam. Keep in mind that Sam approved the video no doubt.
The coffee house too was bit indulgent. And it’s interesting that when Sam talks about wanting to ask ChatGPT something and how he would have to pull out his laptop and do a few other steps…he neglected that all he would have to do was to pull out his smartphone and talk to his own app. He was exaggerating the use case to make a point about the need for new hardware for AI. But the fact that he had to contrast that with a laptop and not a smartphone is perhaps revealing.
With Apple’s pace of innovation, they’ll fall behind quickly. Sell your AAPL while it’s still profitable.
Apple needs to buy Anthropic immediately, if it plans to be relevant in AI
I highly respect both Ive and Altman. I would never count them out. And no doubt they have some ideas.
But Ive is far from perfect. And he did his best work with Steve Jobs, with the two of them bouncing ideas off of each other.
Since Steve passed away, Ive’s record hasn’t been as impressive.
They are talking about their products as something entirely new and they may well be. Or it may be another pin or pendant.
AI is transformative in many ways. But the human form factor remains the same. Our primary ways of interacting with machines are via eyes, ears and hands (unless one goes for a brain interface like Neurolink). There are only so many form factors that will work. I personally think the glasses are the best AI device form factor.
As for the video, IMHO it was a bit too long and bit too indulgent.
Sam Altman is an American psycho dialed up to 11. This scumbag will make Bill Gates retarding of the industry seem like a ‘hold my beer’ moment. Ive has been lost for a long time, and Altman bought him for cheap. Sad.
Ives was only as good as he had Jobs to program him. No more will come of this fake marriage than between Ives and Cook.
Ives is way past his prime, too rich, too fat and just seeking a PR thrill.
Its over for him. And Cook can go back to sleep.
Thanks for this wonderful information.