Sir Jony Ive Is Joining OpenAI: Is the iPhone of AI Devices Coming Next?
- Rich Washburn
- 13 hours ago
- 3 min read
Okay, stop me if you’ve heard this one: the guy who designed the iPhone, Apple Watch, iMac, and probably your favorite power adapter just walked into OpenAI with a multibillion-dollar stock deal under his arm. No punchline—just the very real next chapter in the ever-surreal Silicon Valley soap opera.
Yes, Sir Jony Ive, knighted for his design genius and likely responsible for at least half the things you’ve tapped, swiped, or worn in the past decade, is officially teaming up with OpenAI. And this isn’t just a consulting gig or advisory board title. OpenAI is absorbing his company, LoveFrom (a.k.a. I.O.), in a deal reportedly worth around $6.5 billion—in stock. That's either the world’s most lucrative full-time job or the swankiest acquisition you’ll ever see without a press release featuring Tim Cook's signature.
Now, Jony’s been quietly circling the OpenAI campfire for a while, reportedly working on design ideas in a loose partnership. But now, it’s official. He’s in. And he’s got a mission: design the AI-powered device of the future.
What Does That Even Mean?
Nobody outside the inner sanctum really knows yet—but the rumor mill is grinding hard. The top two guesses?
Voice-first AI interface – A sleek, minimal, possibly screenless device built to be your always-on, always-listening personal AI assistant. Think less “smart speaker,” more “Jarvis in your jacket pocket.”
Smart glasses – Because it’s 2025 and apparently everyone in Silicon Valley woke up and decided it’s time to cosplay Minority Report. Google’s tinkering again, Apple’s always lurking, and now OpenAI might be about to drop a pair of specs that makes ChatGPT your co-pilot in augmented reality.
A Little Apple with That AI?
Here’s the delicious irony: Apple’s gotta be sweating a little. Not only did Ive leave the mothership a few years back, but now his successor at Apple’s design team has also joined OpenAI. That’s like Batman and Robin ditching Gotham to build a Batmobile with the Joker. (Okay, not quite that dramatic, but you get the idea.)
It raises some big questions:
Is OpenAI building a real hardware division?
Are they trying to become the Apple of the AI age?
And will Jony finally get to name things something other than “GPT-4o”?
Let’s be honest, the current naming scheme isn’t exactly singing. “GPT-4o” sounds like something you rinse your teeth with. If Jony's in charge, expect a rebrand where each model has a name like “Open One” or “Vision.AI”—clean, aspirational, and wrapped in an aluminum unibody chassis.
My Take?
This move is huge, and not just for OpenAI’s design cred. It signals a pivot from “just software” to embodied AI experiences—hardware that doesn’t just run AI, but feels like it was born for it. That’s a whole different game. And if anyone knows how to make digital magic feel personal, intuitive, and inevitable, it’s Sir Jony.
Will it be glasses? A wearable? A new kind of phone? Something we haven’t even imagined yet?
Whatever it is, one thing’s for sure: it’s going to be beautiful, it’s going to whisper AI in your ear, and it’s going to make every other gadget you own feel about five years too old.
Stay tuned. Things just got interesting.
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