OpenAI will acquire the AI device startup co-founded by Apple Inc. veteran Jony Ive in a nearly $6.5 billion all-stock deal, joining forces with the legendary designer to make a push into hardware. The purchase — the largest in OpenAI’s history — will provide the company with a dedicated unit for developing AI-powered devices. Acquiring the secretive startup, named io, also will secure the services of Ive and other former Apple designers who were behind iconic products such as the iPhone. “I have a growing sense that everything I’ve learned over the last 30 years has led me to this place and to this moment,” Ive said in a joint interview with OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman. “It’s a relationship and a way of working together that I think is going to yield products and products and products.” For the British-born designer, the move marks a high-profile return to a consumer technology industry he helped pioneer. Working for years alongside Steve Jobs, he crafted the look and feel of the modern smartphone, in addition to the iPod, MacBook, iPad and Apple Watch. He left Apple in 2019. When Ive departed Apple, CEO Tim Cook pitched the idea that the two parties would remain collaborators. But they never released a product together after Ive’s exit. And now the designer is embarking on a new collaboration with Altman, who he called a “rare visionary.”

Full report : OpenAI is acquiring io, a startup co-founded by Apple veteran Jony Ive, in a nearly $6.5 billion all-stock deal to develop AI-powered devices.