"OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman gave his staff a preview Wednesday of the devices he is developing to build with the former Apple designer Jony Ive, laying out plans to ship 100 million AI "companions" that he hopes will become a part of everyday life.
Employees have "the chance to do the biggest thing we've ever done as a company here," Altman said after announcing OpenAI's plans to purchase Ive's startup, named io, and give him an expansive creative and design role.
Altman suggested the $6.5 billion acquisition has the potential to add $1 trillion in value to OpenAI, according to a recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
In the meeting, Ive noted how closely he worked with Steve Jobs before the Apple co-founder died in 2011. With Altman, "the way that we clicked, and the way that we've been able to work together, has been profound for me," Ive said.
Altman and Ive offered a few hints at the secret project they have been working on. The product will be capable of being fully aware of a user's surroundings and life, will be unobtrusive, able to rest in one's pocket or on one's desk, and will be a third core device a person would put on a desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone.
The Journal earlier reported that the device won't be a phone, and that Ive's and Altman's intent is to help wean users from screens. Altman said that the device isn't a pair of glasses, and that Ive had been skeptical about building something to wear on the body.
Ive referred to "a new design movement." Altman said it would amount to a "family of devices," bringing up his fondness for how Apple has long integrated its hardware and software offerings.
Altman told OpenAI staff that stealth will be important for their ultimate success to avoid competitors' copying the product before it is ready.
For months, Ive's team has been speaking with vendors who will be able to ship the device at scale.
"We're not going to ship 100 million devices literally on day one," Altman said, predicting that OpenAI would ship that large quantity of high-quality devices "faster than any company has ever shipped 100 million of something new before."
Altman said the goal is to release a device by late next year.
The grandiose plans echo Altman's bold vision for OpenAI's expansion in many spheres, including for data centers costing hundreds of billions of dollars, enterprise technology, chatbots, personal robots and beyond.
Rolling out new devices, especially ones that will compete with deep-pocketed, multitrillion-dollar companies like Apple and Google, has long been among the most difficult of challenges in the tech industry. Humane, a startup made up of former Apple executives that Altman invested in, sold an "Ai Pin" that failed to catch on with consumers.
OpenAI is already bleeding cash. The startup told investors last fall that it wouldn't generate a profit until 2029, and that it expects to lose $44 billion before doing so, the Journal has reported.
While Apple and Google have struggled to keep pace with AI innovations, many investors see the two companies -- whose software runs nearly all the world's smartphones -- as the primary means through which billions of people will access AI tools and chatbots. Building a device is the only way OpenAI and other artificial-intelligence companies will be able to interact with consumers directly.
Altman and Ive offered details about how their collaboration grew over the past several years. Eighteen months ago, OpenAI Vice President of Product Peter Welinder began working with Ive's team. The two sides became excited about a specific device last fall.
The original plan was for Ive's startup to build and sell its own device using OpenAI's technology, but Altman said he eventually realized that wouldn't work. Altman said he knew the two companies would have to be combined because the device wasn't just an accessory but a central facet of the user relationship with OpenAI.
"We both got excited about the idea that, if you subscribed to ChatGPT, we should just mail you new computers, and you should use those," Altman said.
Altman said he and Ive came to believe that existing devices wouldn't work. While ChatGPT changed people's expectations about the power of technology, it is still being used in an old paradigm: holding a laptop, launching a website and typing something in and waiting.
"It is not the sci-fi dream of what AI could do to enable you in all the ways that I think the models are capable of," Altman said.” [1]
1. Altman Details New Secret AI Device. Berber, Jin. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 23 May 2025: B1.
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