SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — OpenAI has brought aboard Jony Ive, the mastermind behind Apple’s iPhone, to head up a new hardware initiative for the AI firm responsible for ChatGTP.
OpenAI announced the acquisition of io Products, a product and engineering firm co-founded by Ive, for approximately $6.5 billion.
I gained recognition for my precise design sensibility that influenced popular culture throughout a 27-year tenure at Apple, from which I departed in 2019. My most significant contributions were made following Steve Jobs’ return to lead the company in 1997; we then formed a collaboration that led to an array of groundbreaking innovations such as the iPhone.
The recent OpenAI agreement has placed Ive at the forefront of AI—a technology triggering one of the most significant industry transformations since the advent of the iPhone.
The firm has not specified precisely which product they plan to develop, but anticipate “tangible AI manifestations” that will move generative AI chatbot technology beyond just computer screens and into alternative formats like cars, humanoid robots, or the AI-enhanced spectacles currently under development by rivals Google and Meta, according to Gartner analyst Chirak Dekate. He also mentioned that it’s still too soon to say definitively.
OpenAI mentioned that their CEO, Sam Altman, has been “silently” working together since 2023 with Ive and his design company, LoveFrom.
On Wednesday, in a shared statement published on OpenAI’s website, Ive and Altman mentioned that they realized their goals to create, build, and produce a new range of products required forming an entirely new entity.
That’s when I co-founded io, which was established as a corporation in Delaware in September 2023 and officially registered in California in April 2024 based on state documents. According to reports, OpenAI stated they currently hold a 23% share in io due to an earlier collaboration deal finalized towards the end of last year. They have announced their intention to acquire the remaining shares through a $5 billion equity investment.
OpenAI stated that Ive won’t be joining them as an employee, and LoveFrom will stay autonomous yet take on significant design and creative roles within both OpenAI and io. It’s worth noting that both OpenAI and Ive’s design company are located in San Francisco.
Peter Welander, a seasoned executive who spearheaded robotics research during the initial stages of the company’s development and most recently served as the VP of its “New Product Explorations” unit focusing on hardware, robotics, and preliminary research, will head up the new IO division at OpenAI.
Altman, who is 40 years old, can only hope that his developing collaboration with the 58-year-old designer turns out as successful as the synergy between Jobs and Ive.
When he launched his own company, Ive took inspiration for the LoveFrom name from Jobs’ insight that acknowledging our shared human experience can be done through “creating something with tremendous care and affection.”
I have decided to set LoveForm in a historically significant area of San Francisco, situated close to bars and cafés where notable figures from the Beat Generation, like “On the Road” author Jack Kerouac and “Howl” poet Allen Ginsberg, used to gather.
Located approximately two miles away, OpenAI was established almost ten years ago as a non-profit research facility aimed at developing beneficial human-level AI in a safe manner for the advantage of mankind. Despite shifting towards the commercialization of ChatGTP and its other innovations—with Altman, one of its founders, playing an increasing role—OpenAI continues to be governed by a non-profit board of directors. The timing of Altman’s partnership with Ive is uncertain; it isn’t known whether this collaboration started prior to or following these developments.
Altman’s short-lived ouster
In November 2023, several months following IO’s incorporation in Delaware and prior to establishing the new venture in San Francisco.
Earlier this month, Altman stated that OpenAI had decided against scrapping its nonprofit organizational framework. However, they are moving forward with adjustments aimed at facilitating easier access to funds and enabling potential mergers and acquisitions as well as engaging in other typical corporate activities.
——-
O’Brien filed the report from Providence, Rhode Island.
———
The Associated Press and OpenAI have collaborated.
a pact concerning licenses and technological advancements
This enables OpenAI to gain access to portions of AP’s text archives.
Matt O’Brien and Michael Liedtke from The Associated Press
