Former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted a video and statement Wednesday teasing a mysterious AI hardware prototype that will apparently come within a year as OpenAI buys io, Ivy’s fledgling device company, for nearly $6.5 billion in an all-stock deal.
“Jony recently gave me one of the prototypes of the device for the first time to take home, and I’ve been able to live with it,” Altman says in the video. “And I think it is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.”
Trouble is, their video and statement are more like love-fests to each other and the San Francisco Bay Area than they are sources of information about what to expect from actual products — as in what earlier reports called “the iPhone of artificial intelligence.”
Jony Ive, Sam Altman tease mysterious prototype as OpenAI buys io
The video included below makes brief and vague reference to a prototype at about the 3:20 mark, where Altman comments on the prototype, but most of the discussion there and on the OpenAI webpage statement — which looks more like a wedding invitation than a business deal announcement — is more about context than anything substantial.
But the idea that something new is coming rings pretty clear.
“The products that we’re using to deliver and connect us to unimaginable technology, they’re decades old,” Ive says in the video. “Yeah, and so it’s just common sense to at least think surely there’s something beyond these legacy products.” But the pair isn’t revealing much of anything yet.
However, OpenAI’s acquisition of io brings approximately 55 engineers to OpenAI, including several key former Apple executives who worked alongside Ive on iconic products like the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, according to Bloomberg.
The io team is led by three Apple alumni: Evans Hankey, Tang Tan and Scott Cannon.
- Hankey is a veteran industrial designer, and one of Ive’s longest-serving lieutenants. She worked with Ive for more than a decade in Apple’s storied Industrial Design team, and succeeded him as the head of the unit when Ive left Apple in 2019. She left Apple herself in 2023, joining Ive at LoveForm,.
- Tan is a mechanical engineer and was Apple’s Vice President of Product Design, in charge of the hardware design of the iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods. Tan oversaw the design and manufacture of key components like biometric displays and health sensors. He is named in hundreds of patents filed while working at Apple. He left the company in 2004.
- Cannon worked at Apple helping to lead Mac and iPad development. After leaving Apple, in 2013 he co-founded Mailbox, a mobile email app that briefly enjoyed explosive growth before being bought by Dropbox.
New hardware planned for 2026
Sam & Jony introduce io pic.twitter.com/ej5K59kJq3
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) May 21, 2025
The team will continue working from io’s San Francisco offices, developing what they describe as entirely new types of AI-powered devices scheduled to debut in 2026, Bloomberg‘s report said.
“AI is such a big leap forward in terms of what people can do that it needs a new kind of computing form factor to get the maximum potential out of it,” Altman explained. Both executives emphasized these products won’t necessarily replace smartphones, but will introduce completely new ways to interact with AI.
Ive’s design firm LoveFrom will remain independent but will take over design responsibilities for all OpenAI products, including software interfaces. Several former Apple UI designers from LoveFrom — including Bas Ording, Mike Matas and Chris Wilson — could help reshape ChatGPT’s user experience.
Potential implications for Apple
The deal represents a significant competitive challenge for Apple, which has struggled to establish leadership in AI. While Apple integrated some ChatGPT functionality into iOS 18, the company has faced criticism for falling behind rivals in artificial intelligence capabilities.
Ive’s departure from Apple in 2019 initially came with promises of continued collaboration with CEO Tim Cook, but no products resulted from that arrangement. Now, the designer who Steve Jobs once called his “spiritual partner” will be developing competing devices at OpenAI.
The transaction is expected to close this summer, pending regulatory approval.
Leander Kahney contributed to this report.
