OpenAI & Jony Ive’s io Join Forces: The Future of AI Just Got a Makeover

OpenAI has publicly revealed what it is billing as the acquisition and merger of "io," the AI hardware startup founded by iconic Apple designer Jony Ive, in a historic all-stock deal worth almost 6.5 billion dollars. This acquisition is OpenAI's largest to date. 

 

In conjunction, OpenAI is taking a major step into the consumer electronics business by leveraging the experience of Jony Ive and the team of Apple designers responsible for products like iPhone, iPod, and Apple Watch. 

 

In a press release issued today by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Jony Ive announcing the acquisition, the io team will work in "deep collaboration" with OpenAI's research, engineering, and product teams in San Francisco. Though the plan is for the merged teams to work and collaborate closely together, Ive's interest in and his LoveFrom design collective will remain an independent firm, yet with "deep creative and design responsibilities" across OpenAI and io, and also following their signature engagement and design philosophy philosophy. 

 

“This is a relationship and a way of working together that I think is going to yield products and products and products," added Ive, who has many decades of experience in the field, "and I’m incredibly excited to be working with Sam, who I believe to be a rare visionary."

 

The acquisition will create a hardware division that is entirely centered on building and selling AI-based consumer devices. With the acquisition of io, OpenAI is also working to keep the entire team from io onboard whose design principles and philosophies over the past 30 years have produced some of the most well-known and iconic tech products. 

 

The acquisition of io comes on the heels of OpenAI's recent purchases of the AI-assisted coding prototype, Windsurf, as well as analytics database company, Rockset, that demonstrates OpenAI's aggressive push beyond software analytics and into hardware and software innovation. 

 

Source: Bloomberg.