OpenAI on Wednesday announced that it is acquiring io, the hardware-based AI startup co-founded by Former Apple executive Jony Ive. Ive has been working with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on io for two years, and the duo are planning to develop a family of AI devices.
Now details have leaked about the device OpenAI and Ive are working on, thanks to Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealing details about the project in an internal staff call, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The report says the device is not a pair of smartglasses, nor is it a phone, since Ive and Altman want to help wean people off of screens.
Rather, the device is described as a “third core device” after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone:
The product will be capable of being fully aware of a user’s surroundings and life, will be unobtrusive, able to rest in one’s pocket or on one’s desk, and would be a third core device a person would put on their desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone.
WSJ says Altman told the assemble OpenAI staff that they need to keep things underwraps, as the product’s ultimate success hinges on preventing competitors from copying the product before it’s ready for prime time.
Ive’s team is said to have been in touch with suppliers who will be able to ship the device at scale.
Altman said that while OpenAI is “not going to ship 100 million devices literally on day one,” he believes the company will ship that amount of high-quality devices “faster than any company has ever shipped 100 million of something new before.” The company is looking to release the first device by late 2026.
Altman says Ive gave him a prototype of the first device to allow him to test it. “I’ve been able to live with it, and I think it is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen,” he said.
OpenAI’s acquisition of io is subject to regulatory approval and if all goes well regulatory-wise the deal is expected to be finalized this summer. The $6.5 billion purchase of io is OpenAI’s largest acquisition to date.
