OpenAI is building a new family of devices that can listen, see, and eventually act on behalf of users, with a potential impact on telecom networks much bigger than another smart speaker. The hardware effort began around 2023, when Sam Altman and Jony Ive started exploring what a computer designed around modern AI should look like. By 2024, Ive had created io with former Apple executives and engineers including Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey and Tang Tan. In May 2025, OpenAI announced that io would merge into OpenAI, while Ive’s LoveFrom would take a major design role across the company. Reuters valued the transaction at about $6.5 billion. The massive amount of money indicates the ambition is considerably larger than producing an accessory for ChatGPT. OpenAI’s explanation was that computing capabilities had changed while the interfaces through which people use computers remained largely inherited from the smartphone and PC era. The company has since been developing a broader family of consumer devices rather than a single product.