Hours after Sam Altman and Jony Ive announced on Wednesday that OpenAI was buying Ive’s company, io, in an all-stock transaction valued at $6.5 billion, Investors were happy about the hefty returns they got from the sale of io to OpenAI.

Here’s what we know: it’s probably not smart glasses. Beyond that, we don’t know much about what Jony Ive and OpenAI are building through their newly combined company io, except that it’s some kind of AI super-gadget. But after a couple of years of watching the industry try and shove AI into every form factor you can imagine, we have some guesses.

OpenAI has recruited Jony Ive, the designer behind Apple’s iPhone, to lead a new hardware project for the artificial intelligence company that makes ChatGPT.

Apple designer Jony Ive's AI hardware startup, IO, in a deal worth nearly $6.5 billion. Ive previously worked with Sam Altman.

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.

With Ive leading design, OpenAI aims to pair the tech behind its ChatGPT chatbot with product design expertise that made the iPhone a bestseller.

OpenAI is acquiring io, the product-development startup founded by Apple design guru Jony Ive, in a $6.5 billion deal.

Jony Ive, the famed designer who joined Steve Jobs to develop Apple’s most popular products, will now curate new devices for OpenAI after his startup was acquired by Sam Altman’s firm earlier this week,