Legendary British designer Sir Jony Ive, who helped create the Apple iPhone, is joining forces with OpenAI, as the artificial intelligence (AI) firm sets its sights on developing hardware.
OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, will buy a start-up founded by Sir Jony, who will “assume deep design and creative responsibilities” across the company, the two firms said in an announcement.
Open AI boss Sam Altman said the goal was to create a “family of devices” made specifically with AI in mind.
The deal comes as the tech industry has been looking for its next hardware hit after the iPhone and takes particular aim at Apple, which some say has been moving too slowly to incorporate AI into its devices.
“I think we have the opportunity here to kind of completely re-imagine what it means to use a computer,” Mr Altman said in video.
Shares in Apple fell more than 2% after the announcement.
Sir Jony worked for Apple for more than 30 years, helping to revive the company with pathbreaking products including the iPhone and iPod.
He left the firm in 2019 to found his own company, LoveFrom, which has worked with companies such as Airbnb and Moncler.
The idea for io, which Sir Jony founded last year, grew out of several years of quiet collaboration between the two companies, according to the announcement.
“It became clear that our ambitions to develop, engineer and manufacture a new family of products demanded an entirely new company,” it said.
OpenAI had a 23% stake in the startup prior to Wednesday’s announcement, according to US media.
US media reported that the merger valued io at roughly $6.4bn (£4.7bn). LoveFrom will remain independent.
In the video announcing the merger, Sir Jony said he believed the world was on the “brink of a new generation of technology”.
OpenAI set off a wave of investment in AI in 2022 when it unveiled ChatGPT.
It has continued to push into new areas, such as shopping and search, in a challenge to established tech giants.
The foray into hardware comes as tech rivals such as Meta, Google and Apple have also been investing in products such as headsets and glasses, seeing new opportunity due to advances in AI.