Former iPhone Designer Jony Ive Teams Up with OpenAI To Reinvent the Computer

OpenAI just made its biggest move yet — and it’s not a new model or app. It’s hardware.

In a $6.5 billion all-stock deal, OpenAI is acquiring io, a secretive design startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive. The goal? To build a new kind of device. One that doesn’t look like a phone, doesn’t have a screen, and doesn’t fight for your attention — but quietly helps you live, work, and think with AI.

This isn’t just a product bet. It’s OpenAI’s attempt to define what the future of computing looks like — and Jony Ive is holding the pen.

From Weekend Ideas to a Billion-Dollar Company

Two years ago, Sam Altman and Jony Ive started meeting to talk. Not business meetings — more like long, curious chats between two people who wanted to rethink what technology could feel like.

Jony Ive, the legendary Apple designer behind the iPhone, had already left Apple and started his own creative studio LoveFrom. Sam Altman, leading OpenAI, was deep in building the future of artificial intelligence.

At some point, they started sketching product ideas together. The ideas felt different — calm, optimistic, and focused on helping people, not distracting them. It became clear that to build something real, they needed more than drawings. So Jony put together a new hardware company called io, quietly bringing in his closest collaborators from the Apple days.

Now, OpenAI is acquiring io for $6.5 billion in stock. All 50+ people from io are joining OpenAI. Jony and his team will now lead design across both OpenAI and io.

What Are They Actually Building?

The product is still under wraps, but we know a few things. In an internal staff call leaked to The Wall Street Journal, Altman gave a rough idea of what the first device will be.

• It won’t have a screen.
• It’s not glasses or a pin you wear.
• It’s small, pocket-sized.
• It will understand what’s around you and what you’re doing.
• It’s meant to sit on your desk next to your laptop and phone — your third core device.

Altman said it’ll ship faster than any product in history to hit 100 million units. Big claim. But if they pull it off, it might be the first real “AI-native” computer.

Jony Ive has said he wants to move beyond screens. He’s not interested in making more rectangles to look at. Instead, he’s thinking about tools that blend into your life — something more subtle, more useful.

The People Behind It

Io isn’t just Jony. It’s packed with some of the top people from Apple’s golden design era.

• Evans Hankey, former head of industrial design at Apple.
• Tang Tan, who helped design iPhones and AirPods.
• Scott Cannon, who handled Apple’s manufacturing operations.

These are people who know how to design, engineer, and build things at a massive scale. Altman and Ive brought them together to move fast and do it right — not just prototype cool ideas, but actually make them real.

LoveFrom — Jony’s creative studio — will still stay independent, but it will work closely with OpenAI too. They’ve already designed for companies like Airbnb and Ferrari, and now they’ll help shape what OpenAI’s products look and feel like.

Why OpenAI Is Doing This

Right now, most people use AI through a browser, a phone, or an app. It works — but it’s not the future.

Sam Altman thinks accessing ChatGPT through a screen is clunky. He believes AI should be more like a quiet companion — ambient, available, helpful. And that means rethinking the device.

Owning the hardware gives OpenAI a few big advantages:

• They can build the full experience, top to bottom.
• They don’t have to rely on Apple or Google.
• They can try new kinds of interaction — voice, gestures, location-aware AI.
• And they can create new business models (subscriptions, assistant plans, etc.).

With Meta’s smart glasses gaining popularity and Google working on their own, OpenAI didn’t want to be left behind. This is their move.

The Risk And the Opportunity

This isn’t a guaranteed win.

The AI Pin by Humane, another “post-phone” device, had a rough launch. It overheated, died fast, and got terrible reviews. HP ended up buying the company, and the device was shut down.

OpenAI will need to avoid the same mistakes. Making good software is one thing — but building consumer hardware is a different beast. They’ll need to figure out supply chains, battery life, heat, privacy issues, and manufacturing.

But if it works, it could be huge. This isn’t just a product — it’s a shot at defining the next category of computing. Some analysts already believe this could add $1 trillion in long-term value to OpenAI.

What’s Next

Here’s what we can expect over the next year or two:

• A redesigned ChatGPT interface, shaped by Jony’s team.
• Early developer tools to build voice-based or context-aware apps.
• Teasers at OpenAI DevDay.
• More leaks around the first device before the planned 2026 release.

Jony says everything he’s learned over the past 30 years has led him to this project. Altman called it “the most important thing we’ve done yet.”

It’s still early, and a lot could go wrong. But if they get it right, we might be about to see the biggest shift in personal computing since the iPhone — and this time, it might not even have a screen.