The biggest masterpiece in OpenAI history! Apple's legendary design team won $6.4 billion, and the AI+ hardware king combination was born?

OpenAI announced on May 21 that it will acquire Jony Ive's artificial intelligence hardware startup iO through an all-equity transaction with a transaction valuation of approximately US$6.4 billion.

OpenAI's current shareholding in iO accounts for 1.4 billion US dollars in the estimated value of this transaction, and the remaining 5 billion US dollars will be transferred in the form of shares.

This acquisition is OpenAI's largest acquisition to dateIt marks a decisive step in the hardware field for this company known for its generative AI models. This deal directly merges IO into OpenAI.

01.

Meanwhile, Ive, who was Apple's design director, will maintain the independence of its design company LoveFrom.

IVE is considered the designer of the iPhone, iPad, and other important Apple products. Ive will work as a consultant on OpenAI hardware product design, and some of his former Apple employees will also join the AI company.

Before Jony Ive left Apple in 2019, every major Apple hardware launch featured a video highlighting the physical design of the product, with Ive's gentle British accent narration.

Due to his key role in the creation of the iPhone and Apple Watch, Ive became a benchmark for excellent hardware design in Silicon Valley.

The IO startup was founded by IVE and former Apple colleagues Scott Cannon, Tang Tan, and Evans Hankey a year ago, and previously operated as part of LoveFrom. These Apple design veterans and io co-founders will all join OpenAI.

The deal will bring io's device-focused team in-house, adding industrial design capabilities to OpenAI's product portfolio. Sam Altman called Ive “the greatest designer in the world” in a statement shared on the X platform.

02.

Will AI devices usher in a revolution?

The announcement highlights the growing consensus in Silicon Valley that artificial intelligence assistants may disrupt the entire world of electronic devices and replace the laptops and smartphones currently manufactured by Apple with new products that look and function completely different.

“Technological changes such as the internet, smartphones, and AI only happen once in a generation,” senior Apple analyst Gene Munster said in an article on the X platform on Wednesday. “OpenAI is catalyzing this transformation into a tangible product.”

Even Apple executives said that AI hardware could threaten their iPhone business.

Apple's service director Eddy Cue said in court earlier this month that he believes AI devices could replace iPhones within 10 years, “although that sounds crazy.”

“AI is a new technological revolution that creates new opportunities for new entrants,” Eddy Cue said.

 

Meanwhile, Apple's major improvements to its built-in assistant Siri were delayed earlier this year.

One of the core features of Apple Intelligence is integration with OpenAI's ChatGPT to handle queries that Apple Intelligence can't handle.But Siri is still like a simple question-and-answer system, not a smooth conversation like ChatGPT or Google's Gemini。

Apple will present its R&D results at the annual WWDC conference to be held in Cupertino, California on June 9. Last year, Apple first unveiled Apple Intelligence here, and usually announces the latest software for iPhones, iPads, and Macs here.

OpenAI's announcement has few details on what types of products the new OpenAI hardware team will design and build, but the company said it will be showcasing the products it is developing next year.

03.

Next major product

This announcement sounded a wake-up call for Apple, as Apple's former design master is now collaborating with the fastest growing company in Silicon Valley to build top hardware devices, which is likely to threaten Apple's current position.

As Ive said in the video, “I am absolutely convinced that we are indeed on the edge of a new generation of technology that will make us a better version of ourselves.”

OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman said he's excited to partner with Ive to “try to create a new generation of AI-driven computers.”

Although there is currently no best-selling AI consumer hardware product, several startups have tried to create devices that use AI to reduce the physical footprint and simplify the user experience.

Humane, founded by a former Apple employee, has created a small pin with a projector that can make calls and answer questions. However, Humane's $700 product was not sold, and the company was sold to HP.

Additionally, most early adopters purchased the Rabbit R1, a small cube device that costs $199 to answer questions using the OpenAI model. However, the reviews for this device are poor.

Apple's big tech rivals are also increasingly using AI-powered assistants as a way to differentiate their products。

Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses have become an admirable product on the market, selling more than 2 million pairs.

Meta has also placed numerous advertisements for the product, showing how the glasses, in addition to capturing video through the glasses' built-in camera, can use the company's Llama AI model to respond in a conversational manner.

On Tuesday, Google announced a range of new AI models and features, including a full video generator, and a prototype of a new smart glasses running the Android XR software, which will be manufactured by companies like Warby Parker.

Google also said that its Gemini assistant can go into “proxy mode” to complete tasks, similar to Apple's delayed Siri improvements. Although Google brings most Gemini features to iPhones through its app, users can't set it as the default assistant to replace Siri.

Representatives from Apple and OpenAI did not respond to this.

04.

OpenAI's multiple investments

A few weeks ago, OpenAI bought AI coding assistant Windsurf for $3 billion.

Additionally, OpenAI has invested in San Francisco-based robotics startup Physical Intelligence, which raised $400 million at a valuation of $2.4 billion in 2024.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also participated in this funding round. Physical Intelligence builds a general AI that operates in a physical environment, which shows OpenAI's goal of pairing software with tactile systems.

The acquisition of io reinforces this goal. Although OpenAI did not disclose specific products, it mentioned devices that can “inspire, enable, and enable”, and emphasized that iO's mission is to transform AI capabilities into consumer-oriented forms.

It is worth noting thatIt has been revealed that OpenAI will begin phasing out its current naming system to replace the existing “GPT” digital brand with a unified logo in the upcoming GPT-5 version。

Overall, OpenAI's acquisition of IO highlights its strategy to build physical interfaces for models. With the addition of companies such as Google, Anthropic, and XAI, the competitive field of generative AI continues to expand.