Former Apple design chief Jony Ive is joining OpenAI

Jony Ive, the veteran former Apple design chief credited with shaping the company’s product design, is joining ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

OpenAI will merge with Ive’s tech company, io, according to a joint announcement from Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The deal is said to be valued at about $6.5 billion, according to reports from The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and other media outlets. OpenAI previously held a 23% stake in io, according to The New York Times.

Spokespeople for OpenAI did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment regarding the deal’s valuation.

Ive and his separate design firm, LoveFrom, will take on design responsibilities for OpenAI and io, according to an announcement video on OpenAI’s website. They plan to announce their work next year, the video also said. The collaboration comes at a critical time for tech companies, which are racing to incorporate AI into their software and build new products fueled by the technology, from smart glasses to jewelry and new types of handheld devices.

“I think we have the opportunity here to kind of completely reimagine what it means to use a computer,” Altman said in the video.

Ive had been collaborating with OpenAI for two years, according to the announcement. He has been working with OpenAI on a product that “uses A.I. to create a computing experience that is less socially disruptive than the iPhone,” The Times reported in September.

Altman said in the video that he had recently been given a prototype of the device, which he described as “the coolest piece of technology the world will have ever seen.” No concrete details have emerged about the product.

Ive played a pivotal role in Apple’s product design, from the iPhone to the iMac and even the company’s Apple Park headquarters. He left the company in 2019 after nearly 30 years to start his own firm. Ive has largely been credited with establishing Apple’s iconic sleek aesthetic and reviving the company’s fortunes in the late 1990s. When Ive departed the company, CEO Tim Cook said in a press release that his “role in Apple’s revival cannot be overstated.”

OpenAI is perceived to be the front-runner in the consumer AI space; its popular ChatGPT chatbot thrust AI into the spotlight in late 2022, prompting tech giants and startups to shape their products around the technology. Apple partners with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into its Siri virtual assistant.

Ive’s and Altman’s announcement comes a day after Google outlined its plans to release AI-powered smart glasses, a product it believes could be the next iteration of the personal computer. Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses have already been a relative hit with consumers; at least 2 million pairs have been sold.

But some new styles of tech devices built around the promise of facilitating AI interactions, like the Humane AI Pin, have fallen flat with consumers.

“The products that we’re using to deliver and connect us to unimaginable technology, they’re decades old,” Ive said in the video. “And so it’s just common sense to at least think surely there’s something beyond these legacy products.”