AI gadgets are back, baby! Or that’s what Jony Ive and Sam Altman hope. Well, they may not really hope they’re back as much as they hope they’re not completely and utterly cooked. ICYMI, Ive and OpenAI’s CEO,

OpenAI is acquiring Jony Ive and Sam Altman's startup, io, which will lead creative and design work for OpenAI.

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.

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

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.

The Verge team has a few guesses about the first hardware release from the OpenAI and io combination. Let us know yours in the comments. * Richard Lawler: Speaker / projector combo. * Wes Davis and Andrew Liszewski: Her-style earbud plus puck controller.