OpenAI forms a new hardware division with the io team, led by Jony Ive, to develop AI-native devices, possibly launching a voice-first product as early as 2026.

OpenAI has fully acquired Io, a joint venture it cocreated last year with Jony Ive, the famed British designer behind the sleek industrial aesthetic that defined the iPhone and more than two decades of Apple products.

As OpenAI acquired famed ex-Apple designer Jony Ive's AI company to work on a "new family of products", Sam Altman already believes that they will be able to sell 100 million AI devices.

OpenAI pushed generative AI into the public consciousness. Now, it could be developing a very different kind of AI device. According to a WSJ report,

Sam Altman is working with Ive to secure direct user access, showing how distribution is becoming more important than technology in the AI race.

In a move that casts a shadow across Apple’s upcoming Worldwide Developer’s Conference, OpenAI has announced that it will purchase io, the AI startup founded by acclaimed former Apple designer Sir Jony Ive, who helped create the iMac, iPod, and iPhone.

OpenAI said it has acquired io, a startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive. Ive and his team will now join OpenAI and lead creative and design work including on AI-powered computers, adding an intriguing new line of business for what has become an artificial intelligence powerhouse.