Why OpenAI Bets $6.5 Billion on io Products, Jony Ive’s Startup

Purchasing a $6.5 billion stake in a startup that has never launched a product, yet stars a figurehead named Jony Ive—the famed designer behind the iPhone and a string of Apple blockbusters—is, in a nutshell, the summary of OpenAI’s latest move.

This staggering amount, paid entirely in OpenAI stock, rests on a record $300 billion valuation in light of SoftBank’s ongoing $40 billion fundraising round. At the very least, the deal accounts for more than 2% of OpenAI’s total value, a substantial investment that underscores how strategically important hardware is within the generative AI ecosystem.

OpenAI already owned 23% of io Products (don’t bother looking for a company site—the entity doesn’t exist) since its late-2024 launch. According to DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria, “OpenAI wants to own the next hardware platform so it won’t have to sell its products through Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android.” A strategy reminiscent of Meta with its Ray-Ban glasses and Quest headsets, or Google with its Pixel smartphones.

“The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower, and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more closely with the research, engineering, and product teams in San Francisco ” says the inventor of ChatGPT.

Expertise as a Decisive Competitive Advantage

Hiring Jony Ive and his team of former Apple executives (Evans Hankey, Tang Tan, Scott Cannon) represents an invaluable transfer of know-how. These designers helped craft Apple’s most lucrative products—the iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and Apple Watch—products that have generated hundreds of billions in revenue.

The io Products team brings 55 engineers specializing in hardware, software development, and manufacturing expertise. It’s a valuable shortcut for recruiting in a sector where design and industrialization know-how remains scarce and costly. Yet, Jony Ive will not devote himself to OpenAI full-time. He will continue to lead LoveFrom, the design studio he founded in 2019 after leaving Apple. “However, Jony and LoveFrom will assume deep responsibilities in design and creation within OpenAI and io,” states the official communication.

L’histoire de ce rapprochement aurait commencé il y a deux ans. “Jony Ive and the LoveFrom creative collective quietly began collaborating with Sam Altman and the OpenAI team[…]. Ideas and explorations gave rise to concrete projects.”

Lessons from Previous Failures

Yet despite the marquee figures involved and the cash on offer, the challenge remains monumental. The market for dedicated AI devices has witnessed notable misfires. Humane AI, despite its Apple-origin founders, faced criticism of its AI Pin for battery life, overheating, and limited features. HP ultimately acquired Humane’s assets for just $116 million, illustrating the rapid erosion of value when a product underperforms.

Rabbit, which has sold more than 100,000 units of its R1 device, proves there is a market, but critiques of its limited capabilities compared with smartphones reveal the difficulty of economically justifying a dedicated device.

Economic Outlook and Timelines

OpenAI‑io’s first products are slated for 2026, allowing ample time for development and industrialization. “I’m excited to try to build a new generation of computers powered by AI,” said Sam Altman.

The economic stakes go beyond simply creating new products: it’s about setting the interaction standards with generative AI for the next decade. And as Sam Altman noted, “We are still in the terminal phase of AI interactions.”