OpenAI acquires Jony Ive’s startup for $6.5B to create the AI-first, post-smartphone future

OpenAI is taking its biggest step yet beyond software, striking a $6.5 billion deal to acquire io, the mysterious hardware venture co-founded by legendary designer Jony Ive. The acquisition, still awaiting regulatory approval, marks a pivotal moment not just for OpenAI but for the future of consumer technology, as the company signals its intent to reimagine the very devices we use to interact with AI.

The startup, previously operating in stealth, has been the result of a quiet, two-year collaboration between Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Their shared goal: invent a new kind of personal device—one that abandons legacy computing models and rethinks how humans experience intelligence in everyday life.

What they’re building remains tightly guarded, but those close to the project describe it as the conceptual opposite of a smartphone. Instead of screens and apps, the device is expected to center on ambient, voice-first interactions—leaning heavily on OpenAI’s strengths in natural language processing. The hardware could eventually serve as a physical extension of the company’s powerful AI models, bringing them into users’ lives in a constant, intuitive way.

To bring this vision to life, OpenAI is absorbing io’s team of hardware veterans, including key Apple alumni like Evans Hankey, Tang Tan, and Scott Cannon. These designers, who helped shape some of Apple’s most iconic products, now join forces with OpenAI to create a new generation of tech—one that prioritizes seamless design, minimal friction, and emotional connection.

Design firm LoveFrom, also led by Ive, will oversee the industrial and experiential aspects of OpenAI’s future products. The merger not only gives OpenAI the design horsepower it previously lacked, but also formalizes a deeper partnership with one of the most influential design thinkers in modern tech history.

While other companies continue to retrofit AI into smartphones, PCs, and existing ecosystems, OpenAI’s bet is more radical. It wants to build something new from the ground up—an AI-native device unconstrained by the assumptions of the past. In doing so, it sets the stage for direct competition with Apple, whose dominance in hardware could be challenged if OpenAI’s vision catches on.

The first product from this union isn’t expected to launch until 2026, but the intent is clear: OpenAI doesn’t just want to lead in software—it wants to define how we physically experience the next era of computing.

As for Jony Ive, who helped usher in the touchscreen era with the iPhone, the opportunity to design something beyond the phone may be his most ambitious project yet. For OpenAI, it’s not just about entering the hardware space—it’s about inventing the next personal device for the AI age.