Jony Ive has confirmed his collaboration with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on an AI hardware project. This announcement comes in a profile of Ive in The New York Times, almost a year after rumors of their partnership first surfaced.
Details about the project remain scarce. Ive and Altman were introduced by Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb. Funding for the venture is provided by Ive and Emerson Collective, the company founded by Laurene Powell Jobs. The Times mentions the potential to raise $1 billion in funding by year’s end, but there is no reference to SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who was previously rumored to be investing in the initiative.
Currently, the project employs just 10 people, including Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, key contributors from the iPhone team. Ive's design firm, LoveFrom, is leading the device's design. The team operates from a 32,000-square-foot office in San Francisco, part of a $90 million real estate acquisition by Ive in a single city block.
Regarding the device, Ive and Altman discussed how generative AI enables the creation of a new computing device that surpasses traditional software capabilities. Initial speculation suggested inspiration from touchscreen technology and the original iPhone, yet many specifics have yet to be finalized. LoveFrom cofounder Marc Newson stated that the timeline for the AI product's market release is still in development.