OpenAI is making a big bet in purchasing Jony Ive’s nascent startup, but it’s a deal reminiscent of some made by Mark Zuckerberg.

OpenAI forms a new hardware division with the io team, led by Jony Ive, to develop AI-native devices, possibly launching a voice-first product as early as 2026.

As per news reports, all of io’s staff will join OpenAI, where they will work closely with the AI giant’s engineering, research and design teams in San Francisco. As per a report from Reuters, OpenAI is expected to name Jony Ive as creative head. However, Ive may also continue to run his independent design studio, LoveFrom.

There have been public failures as well, such as the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1 personal assistant device. “Those were very poor products,” said Ive, 58. “There has been an absence of new ways of thinking expressed in products.”

The hand of Jony Ive is all around us: on our desks, in our pockets, in our palms. More than any other living designer, Apple’s former design chief has shaped and contoured our day-to-day experience. Yet unlike the buzzing, attention-hungry iPhone – his most earth-shaking effigy – the man himself is much less forthcoming.