OpenAI is buying io, an AI device startup founded by iPhone designer Jony Ive, in a $6.5 billion all-stock deal as OpenAI attempts to define the AI-powered devices market. OpenAI acquired a 23% stake in io last year and invested in the startup at that time.
The acquisition is the largest in OpenAI's history and was announced on Wednesday, mere weeks after OpenAI agreed to buy AI-assisted coding tool Windsurf for about $3 billion. The deal is intended to spark a new generation of products for a future where AI technology attains or surpasses human intelligence.
As part of the acquisition, Ive and his team of about 55 engineers, designers, and researchers will join OpenAI in creative and design roles that allow them to shape AI devices for consumers. They will build hardware that helps people interact with ChatGPT more intuitively, without having to go on a web browser or an app on their phones.
Jony Ive. Photo by Lia Toby/BFC/Getty Images
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive have been collaborating for two years on a secretive project to move people beyond screens and into other types of AI-powered devices. The Wall Street Journal reports that the two have been considering AI headphones and other gadgets with cameras.
Related: Saying 'Please' and 'Thank You' to ChatGPT Costs OpenAI 'Tens of Millions of Dollars'
In a release video on Wednesday announcing the deal, Altman called Ive "the deepest thinker of anyone I've ever met," and Ive complimented Altman in turn, calling him "a visionary."
"I think we have the opportunity here to completely reimagine what it means to use a computer," Altman said in the video.
While both were quiet about the details of a family of new AI products, they teased that the products were groundbreaking and would arrive sometime next year. Altman went as far as to call one unnamed product he interacted with "the coolest piece of technology the world has ever seen."
Related: These Are the Most (and Least) Biased AI Models, According to a New Study
Ive started working at Apple in 1992 and played a crucial role in designing the iPhone, iPad, iMac, and other Apple products. He left in 2019 to create his own design firm, LoveFrom, which has since landed deals with Airbnb and Ferrari.
Altman has explored AI devices before. In 2020, he invested in the startup Humane, which developed an Ai Pin that fell flat with consumers due to overheating issues and a lagging interface.
OpenAI reported last month that ChatGPT had 500 million global weekly users.
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