OpenAI Acquires Jony Ive’s Startup IO - A $6.4 Billion Bet on the Post-Smartphone World

OpenAI is acquiring Jony Ive’s hardware startup io in a $6.4 billion all-equity deal, signaling a major shift toward developing AI-native devices for the AGI era. Ive, the former Apple design chief behind iconic products like the iPhone and MacBook, will serve as a creative consultant but won’t join as a full-time employee. This move marks OpenAI’s commitment to creating alternatives to smartphones and laptops—rethinking the very interface between humans and machines. It follows failed attempts by others, like Humane’s AI Pin, but the combination of Ive’s design legacy and OpenAI’s AI leadership suggests a more ambitious and potentially category-defining direction.

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