OpenAI recruits legendary iPhone designer Jony Ive to work on AI hardware in $6.5B deal
May 21, 2025
OpenAI has recruited Jony Ive, the designer behind Apple’s iPhone, to lead a new hardware project for the artificial intelligence company that makes ChatGPT. OpenAI said it is acquiring io Products, a product and engineering company co-founded by Ive, in a deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion.Ive became renowned for a meticulous design aesthetic that shaped the cultural zeitgeist during a 27-year career at Apple, which he left in 2019. The new OpenAI deal now thrusts Ive at the vanguard of AI — a technology driving the biggest industry shift since the iPhone’s arrival.
