OpenAI is buying Jony Ive’s start-up io Products in a US$6.5 billion deal and will bring the chief designer of early iPhones on board as creative head to develop devices tailored for the generative artificial intelligence (AI) era.
With Ive leading design, OpenAI aims to pair the technology behind its popular ChatGPT chatbot with the product design expertise that made devices such as the iPhone bestsellers.
The companies did not disclose the financial details of the deal for io, which Ive co-founded a year ago. The all-stock deal was valued at US$6.5 billion based on OpenAI’s US$300 billion valuation, according to a source familiar with the matter.
OpenAI had previously owned a 23 per cent stake in the company, according to the source who requested anonymity to discuss private matters.
“The products that we’re using to deliver and connect us to unimaginable technology. They’re decades old, yeah, and so it’s just common sense to at least think surely there’s something beyond these legacy products we have,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive said in a video posted on OpenAI’s blog.
