OpenAI buys iPhone designer Jony Ive device startup for $6.4 billion

OpenAI said on Wednesday that it’s buying Jony Ive’s AI devices startup io for $6.4 billion in an all-equity deal that includes its current stake in the company.

Ive is taking on “deep creative and design responsibilities across OpenAI and io,” OpenAI said in a statement. The company said that io is merging with OpenAI, while Ive and his “creative collective” called LoveFrom will stay independent.

News of the acquisition comes weeks after OpenAI agreed to pay about $3 billion to acquire Windsurf, an AI tool for coding help. Windsurf, formerly known as Codeium, competes with Cursor, another popular AI coding tool, as well as existing AI coding features from companies such as Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI itself.

The news also comes as OpenAI, which was recently valued at $300 billion in a funding round led by SoftBank, is rushing to stay ahead in the generative AI race, where competitors including Google, Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI are investing heavily and regularly rolling out new products. And part of staying ahead in that race includes shoring up its hardware operations.

In November, OpenAI hired the former head of Meta’s Orion augmented reality glasses initiative to lead the its robotics and consumer hardware efforts.

Caitlin “CK” Kalinowski wrote in an announcement at the time that the role would “initially focus on OpenAI’s robotics work and partnerships to help bring AI into the physical world and unlock its benefits for humanity.”

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