OpenAI announced on May 21, 2025 that it would acquire io, the AI device startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, in an all-stock deal valued at about $6.5 billion. It was the largest acquisition in OpenAI's history at the time and its first major move into consumer hardware, and it gave Ive and his design firm LoveFrom deep design responsibilities across the company. The OpenAI io acquisition signaled that the maker of ChatGPT wants to shape not only the models developers call but also the devices through which people might reach them.
Key Facts#
- OpenAI announced the acquisition of io on May 21, 2025. Bloomberg valued the all-stock deal at about $6.5 billion, while CNBC put it at $6.4 billion.
- OpenAI already held a 23% minority stake in io before the deal.
- Ive founded io in 2024. Its team of about 55 engineers, designers and researchers joined OpenAI to work with its research, engineering and product groups in San Francisco.
- Ive and LoveFrom took on deep creative and design responsibilities across OpenAI, while LoveFrom remained an independent company.
- The deal closed on July 9, 2025, under the name io Products, Inc., after a trademark dispute with a startup called iyO.
- Coverage described it as OpenAI's first significant step into the consumer hardware market.
What Happened#
The announcement combined an acquisition with a partnership. OpenAI bought the part of io it did not already own, and io's staff became OpenAI employees who would work closely with the company's research and product teams. Ive and LoveFrom, by contrast, remained independent, according to OpenAI, while taking on design leadership across OpenAI's products.
Closing took about seven weeks and included an unusual detour. A trademark dispute with iyO, a startup with a similar name, led to an injunction, and OpenAI temporarily removed its web page and materials about the deal. When the transaction closed on July 9, OpenAI referred to the acquired company as io Products, Inc. In a post on X announcing the closing, OpenAI wrote: "Jony Ive & LoveFrom remain independent. They'll have deep design & creative responsibilities across OpenAI."
Coverage of the announcement and the closing did not describe specific products, which left the shape of OpenAI's first device to speculation.
Background#
Jony Ive led design at Apple for decades and is closely associated with the iPhone and other products that defined personal computing. After leaving Apple in 2019, he founded LoveFrom, and in 2024 he started io to explore hardware built around AI. OpenAI's existing 23% stake meant the two companies were already closely tied before the acquisition.
The deal arrived after a difficult period for dedicated AI gadgets. In 2024, several startups launched wearable or pocket devices built around AI assistants, and many received harsh reviews for slow responses, limited usefulness and short battery life. Those experiences showed that a capable model alone does not make a compelling device. Hardware design, latency, privacy and a clear reason to exist beyond the smartphone all matter, which is exactly the expertise OpenAI was paying for.
For OpenAI, the logic is about distribution and control. Today, most people reach its models through apps and web browsers that run on platforms owned by others. A device of its own would give OpenAI a direct relationship with users and freedom to design interactions around voice, vision and context rather than around screens and app icons.
Why It Matters for Developers#
A new class of AI-first devices would change how users reach your software. Instead of opening an app, a user might ask an assistant to check an order, book a room or summarize a document, and the assistant would call services on their behalf. That shifts the integration point from your UI to your API, and it rewards APIs that are well described, predictable and safe for automated callers.
For .NET teams, the preparation is sound API engineering that pays off even if no device ever ships. Describe your endpoints precisely so that models and agent frameworks can understand them, validate inputs strictly, and design operations to be idempotent. ASP.NET Core's built-in OpenAPI support makes that metadata part of the code:
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
builder.Services.AddOpenApi();
builder.Services.AddSingleton<IOrderStatusService, InMemoryOrderStatusService>();
var app = builder.Build();
app.MapOpenApi(); // serves the document at /openapi/v1.json
app.MapGet("/orders/{orderNumber}/status", async (
string orderNumber, IOrderStatusService orders, CancellationToken ct) =>
await orders.FindAsync(orderNumber, ct) is { } status
? Results.Ok(status)
: Results.NotFound())
.WithName("GetOrderStatus")
.WithSummary("Gets the shipping status of one order.")
.WithDescription("Returns the fulfillment stage and estimated delivery date.")
.Produces<OrderStatus>()
.ProducesProblem(StatusCodes.Status404NotFound);
app.Run();
public sealed record OrderStatus(string OrderNumber, string Stage, DateOnly? EstimatedDelivery);
public interface IOrderStatusService
{
Task<OrderStatus?> FindAsync(string orderNumber, CancellationToken ct);
}
public sealed class InMemoryOrderStatusService : IOrderStatusService
{
public Task<OrderStatus?> FindAsync(string orderNumber, CancellationToken ct) =>
Task.FromResult<OrderStatus?>(orderNumber == "1042"
? new OrderStatus(orderNumber, "Shipped", DateOnly.FromDateTime(DateTime.Today))
: null);
}Clear names, summaries and response types help both human consumers and AI agents choose the right operation. The OpenAPI in ASP.NET Core guide covers the details, and the function calling guide explains how models select and invoke tools described this way. If you prefer to expose capabilities directly to AI assistants, the MCP in C# guide shows how to wrap the same services as Model Context Protocol tools.
Devices built around voice and cameras also raise the importance of multimodal input. Speech, images and real-time context are likely to become normal inputs to the services you build, and the multimodal AI in .NET guide is a practical starting point.
What's Next#
At the time of the deal, OpenAI had not unveiled a product or announced pricing. The open questions were fundamental: what form factor the first device would take, whether it would replace or complement the smartphone, how it would handle privacy for always-available sensors, and whether third-party developers would be able to build for it.
The all-stock structure also showed how OpenAI could use its highly valued shares as currency, and that valuation kept climbing afterward, reaching $852 billion after a $122 billion round in March 2026. For developers, the device itself remains the thing to watch, along with any developer platform or API surface that OpenAI announces alongside it.
Sources#
- OpenAI to buy Apple veteran Jony Ive's AI device startup in $6.5 billion deal (Bloomberg)
- OpenAI is buying iPhone designer Jony Ive's AI devices startup for $6.4 billion (CNBC)
- OpenAI closes $6.5 billion deal to buy Jony Ive's device startup (Bloomberg)
- OpenAI officially acquires io Products Inc. (Daring Fireball)
- OpenAI post announcing the closing of the io Products deal (OpenAI on X)