Jony Ive’s io Merges with OpenAI to Build Human-Centered AI Hardware

• New company io brings veteran hardware team to deepen OpenAI product collaboration.
• Ive and LoveFrom take on creative leadership across both organizations.

Jony Ive has launched io, a hardware company founded to create new tools for the age of AI. Formed one year ago with Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan, the company gathered a team of experienced engineers, designers, and scientists, many of whom have worked together for decades. Their focus is on developing a new family of products that inspire and empower.

“AI is an incredible technology, but great tools require work at the intersection of technology, design, and understanding people and the world. No one can do this like Jony and his team; the amount of care they put into every aspect of the process is extraordinary," said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, in the company's official blog.

The company will now merge with OpenAI to strengthen collaboration between product designers and AI researchers. The two organizations began working together two years ago, starting with informal creative explorations that evolved into tangible product designs. The merger enables closer integration between io’s hardware team and OpenAI’s core engineering groups in San Francisco.

Following the merger, Ive and his design firm, LoveFrom, will lead creative direction across io and OpenAI. The announcement positions the combined team to rethink how technology is experienced, emphasizing a design-first approach to building tools shaped by both technical possibility and human understanding.

🌀 Tom’s Take:

GenAI becomes truly transformative when it steps into the physical world. Pairing it with spatial intelligence through sensor-rich hardware is the key to unlocking physical AI. OpenAI’s merger with io sets the stage for consumer devices that bring ChatGPT into this new dimension.

Source: OpenAI