OpenAI has acquired hardware and product development startup io in a move that brings Jony Ive, Apple’s former chief design officer, into the fold at the company behind ChatGPT.
OpenAI previously held a 23 percent stake in io, according to reporting by Tech Funding News, and the company is investing another $5 billion. The all-equity deal collectively totals $6.5 billion and marks OpenAI’s biggest acquisition to date.
A letter from Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shows the collaboration that led to io’s creation began two years ago and involved Ive’s creative collective LoveFrom. Ive founded io alongside engineers Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey and Tang Tan.
The merger will focus on “how to create a family of devices that would let people use AI to create all sorts of wonderful things,” Altman said in a video announcing the news.
Ive and other members of the LoveFrom team are expected to “assume deep design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI and io.”
