Altman says deal could add up to a trillion to company value
OpenAI is buying io, an AI start-up founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive and other Apple alumni. The deal is OpenAI’s largest acquisition to date and part of Altman’s vision of a world of “AI companions.”
OpenAI is paying $5 billion in the transaction as it already owns 23% of io.
According to a blog post from Sam Altman entitled ‘Sam and Jony introduce io’, former Apple design chief Ive and his design firm LoveFrom have been quietly collaborating with OpenAI for a couple of years. Both parties wanted further collaboration so Ive and his former colleagues – Apple alumni Scott Cannon, Tang Tan and Evans Hankey – created io with the aim of building a new family of products for OpenAI. The “creative collective” LoveFrom will remain independent.
In addition to the io co-founders, dozens of io engineers, software developers and experts will join the OpenAI payroll.
Ive is the designer behind Apple’s most iconic products, including the iPod, iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air. He also helped design Apple’s new Cupertino headquarters, called Apple Park. Altman posted on X that he believes Ive is “the greatest designer in the world.”
The purchase is OpenAIs largest acquisition to date and comes only weeks after the company agreed to buy AI-assisted coding tool Windsurf for $3 billion. Prior to that, OpenAI acquired analytics database company Rockset for an undisclosed sum in 2024.
Ive left Apple in 2019 to start LoveFrom. The New York Times reported last year that LoveFrom’s clients pay the firm up to $200 million a year and that its designers at the time were working on projects for Christie’s, Airbnb and Ferrari.
The first devices are set to be launched in 2026, and Altman shared plans with staff that he plans to ship 100 million AI “companions” which are intended to be devices to accompany phones and MacBooks rather than replace them.
According to the The Wall Street Journal, Altman told employees that they had “the chance to do the biggest thing we’ve ever done as a company here.” He suggested that the acquisition has the potential to add $1 trillion in value to OpenAI.
