The News

OpenAI announced that it has fully acquired Io, a joint venture it co-created last year with Jony Ive, British designer who designed more than two decades of Apple Products, and founded the American collective of designers and creatives called LoveFrom.

In a 10-minute video, Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman mentioned that the Apple pioneer's "creative collective" will "merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering, and product teams in San Francisco". Although, they are talking for nearly ten minutes about musings on technology, they never share exactly what it is they are building.

Jony Ive's AI startup launched last spring as part of a joint project between OpenAI and LoveFrom. In the fourth quarter of last year, they entered into an agreement for OpenAI to receive a 23 percent stake in Io, Ive's bespoke AI startup. With this acquisition, OpenAI is now buing the entity outright.

My Thoughts

I do not have many words for what we just witnessed, but to me it seems like that OpenAI acquired a company that has yet to launch something. OpenAI acquired a company that is building in a product category that consistently failed at delivering its promises. I mean, take a look at Humane (by the way, that one got also founded by ex-Apple employees). They built and designed a non-functional AI wearable that was overpriced, did not solve any of technology's problems, and produced a ton of waste. Fast forward to February 2025, and they got acquired by HP to inject artificial intelligence into in-house printers. They raised over $230M, tried to sell for $1B, and ultimately got acquired for $116M.

Or what about the Rabbit R1, which scored a "Barely Reviewable" from tech-YouTuber Marques Brownlee one year ago. Or what about the Limitless AI pendant that launched over a year ago, and from which you basically hear nothing anymore (at least not in my bubble). If you fancy digging deeper into the world of AI hardware, there is also the PLAUD NotePin (which looks horrendous), omi, or Bee. All of them feature poor industrial design for my taste. So, it will be interesting to see whether Jony Ive can build up on his immense success at Apple, and design and build AI hardware that at least look good, since whether those devices actually make a difference, solve any of technology's problems, and work as intended is a whole other story.

Cycling back to the acquisition, it is also fascinating, that OpenAI as a company who is burning through piles of Money, and has yet to make a single cent as a profit is valued at $157B, and still can just go ahead to acquire another company that has not launched anything for $6.5B. This is mind-boggling.

Besides that, I am struggling a bit with the fact that loads of people who report about those kind of topics for a living are enthusiastic and positive about this acquisition. But at a second thought, with the overhyped situation regarding all things AI, this just makes sense. A legendary design lead joins forces with the most polarizing figure in AI. That just has to work out, right?

I can not fully imagine what they will build, but I assume it will be in a similar realm as the Humane AI Pin. They probably will tell you that they got rid of the smartphone, although, people just love their smartphones. They love to stare into a small screen for hours, it is an accessory, something so important that most people will probably not give up on it because yet another company comes around the corner presenting an AI wearable that does all the fun stuff we are doing with our phones, for us.

Conclusion

OpenAI's acquisition of Jony Ive's AI startup is yet another remark of the overhyped realm of AI. And that hype around AI often has already often lead us down a rabbit hole of unrealistic expectations, just within the past couple of years. I try my best to reassess my skepticism and consider the possibility that this acquisition is not about creating another gadget, but rather redefine how we interact with technology. Nevertheless, I am keeping my expectations low, I do not have much hope, since there are way to many past examples already that show a different path.

Till next time! 👋‌‌‌‌

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