Altman and Ive promise an “unobtrusive” AI device that reinvents everyday tech as hype builds ahead of the 2026 launch.

Jony Ive, the design genius behind the iPhone, has sold his hardware startup, io, to OpenAI in a $6.4bn (£4.8bn) deal that sets the stage for what he calls a culmination of three decades of innovation. Teaming up with OpenAI boss Sam Altman, the duo are promising to create the most revolutionary tech product since the iPhone – an “AI companion” device that is neither a phone nor a wearable, but something entirely new.

“This moment,” Ive declared in a promotional video, “is what all the last 30 years have led me to.” The nine-minute clip, shot in the vintage Cafe Zoetrope in San Francisco, sees the British-born designer share warm reflections with Altman as they tease a product so secretive that no specifics are revealed – yet so significant that Altman called it “the coolest piece of technology the world will have ever seen.”

The deal doesn’t just fold io into OpenAI. Ive’s design agency, LoveFrom, now takes the creative reins of OpenAI’s hardware ambitions. With that, the former Apple design chief moves from shaping sleek consumer tech to helping define the future of artificial intelligence in our everyday lives.

According to reports, OpenAI plans to roll out 100 million of these devices, which are expected to sit on desks alongside laptops and smartphones. Designed to be ever-present yet unobtrusive, the AI companion will use sensors and intelligence to fully understand its user’s environment and routines. Altman has ruled out wearables, reportedly agreeing with Ive that devices worn on the body feel intrusive or gimmicky.

Yet the mountain they’re attempting to scale is steep. Analysts like Martha Bennett of Forrester Research warn that displacing screen-based devices will require something truly extraordinary. “It really will have to be amazing to prise people away from their current habits,” she says, noting the recent flops of AI gadgets like Humane’s “pin” and Rabbit’s R1 – devices Ive himself dismissed as “very poor products.”

The ambition, however, is clear. OpenAI doesn’t just want to be a software company – it wants to become a major platform in its own right. “They’re trying to become the next Apple or Google,” says Benedict Evans, a leading tech analyst. “They need hardware to make their software indispensable – and Jony Ive is their shot at doing that.”

Evans also highlights how AI models are becoming increasingly similar, with fewer clear differentiators between them. “That’s why Altman is now chasing form as much as function. The right device could be the killer differentiator.”

Ive’s legacy at Apple, where he led the design of the iPod, iPad, Apple Watch and the game-changing iPhone, still looms large. Matching or exceeding that bar is no small feat. The stakes are even higher now, given the billions OpenAI has ploughed into hardware innovation and the increasing pressure to turn its cutting-edge research into consumer-facing success.

But Altman, often likened to Steve Jobs for his relentless pursuit of tech breakthroughs, sees the new AI companion not as a product but as the start of a new era. “AI needs a home,” he says in the video. “And we think we’ve found it.”

Set to launch in 2026, the as-yet unnamed device remains shrouded in mystery, but one thing is clear: Ive and Altman are betting big that the next revolution won’t come from a screen — but from something smarter, subtler, and always present