Jony Ive & OpenAI CEO Sam Altman To Launch AI Hardware Design Firm Together

Images via Rokas Tenys | Dreamstime.com and Christoph Dernbach / dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo

Artificial intelligence might be taking over our lives today, but Jony Ive and Sam Altman are certain that it doesn’t have to be that way. The former Apple design chief, known for shaping the sleek aesthetics of the iPhone, has joined forces with the OpenAI CEO to create a new AI-driven device that aims to be less socially intrusive than the phones we can’t seem to put down.

This upcoming startup, led by Ive’s design firm LoveFrom and recently confirmed in a New York Times feature, may give us a glimpse of a future where AI feels less like a constant distraction and more like an invisible companion.

While details surrounding the project are currently being kept hush-hush, the duo’s high ambitions are evident. The startup is in its fundraising phase—already securing familiar names like the Emerson Collective, led by Steve Jobs’ wife Laurene Powell Jobs, and Ive himself—with the goal to garner US$1 billion by the end of the year. That amount of money suggests the venture’s scope and potentially long-lasting impact.

Ive has been instrumental in designing Apple’s most iconic products. His minimalistic design ethos, paired with Altman’s deep knowledge of AI, hints at a device that will blend form and function in a way that feels both natural and intuitive.

Since parting ways with Apple in 2019, Ive has kept busy through LoveFrom, his cross-disciplinary creative consultancy, tackling everything from designing Ferrari’s first electric car to collaborating with Comic Relief on a whimsical red clown nose and creating a luxury turntable. 

Industrial designer Marc Newson, also part of the effort as Ive’s fellow co-founder in LoveFrom, has noted that the details will emerge in due time. For now, it’s a waiting game.

[via TechCrunch, New York Times, Tom’s Hardware, cover image via Rokas Tenys | Dreamstime.com and Christoph Dernbach / dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo]