OpenAI and Jony Ive's new company io announce merger to shape the future of AI products

On May 21, 2025, the tech world was treated to some big news. OpenAI, a leader in artificial intelligence, and the new company founded by legendary designer Jony Ive io officially announced the merger. The partnership signals a shared commitment to developing a new generation of products that deeply integrate cutting-edge artificial intelligence with design excellence.

The merger didn't happen overnight. It was revealed that OpenAI's Sam Altman had been quietly working with Jony Ive and the LoveFrom creative team for two years. What began as an exploration based on friendship, curiosity and shared values evolved into concrete collaborative design and product ideas. These ideas are considered "important and practical", "optimistic and hopeful", and "inspiring", harkening back to a better time when technological advances empowered human learning, exploration, and creativity. The two parties considered it "important and practical", full of "optimism and hope" and "inspiring", recalling the good old days when technological advances empowered human learning, exploration and creation.

As the collaboration progressed, the two parties realized that an entirely new entity was needed to achieve the ambitious goal of developing, engineering and manufacturing a whole new line of products. So, a year ago, Jony Ive, along with Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey and Tang Tan, founded io Company.io The team brings together leading hardware and software engineers, technologists, physicists, scientists, researchers, and product development and manufacturing veterans, many of whom have worked closely together for decades. The addition of Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey and Tang Tan, all of whom are known to have been key associates of Jony Ive during his time at Apple, will undoubtedly add to the team's success. io Infused with a strong hardware design and engineering DNA.

According to the statement, the merger, which focuses on developing products that "inspire, empower, and realize possibilities," will be the first of its kind. io The team will merge into OpenAI to work more closely with the research, engineering, and product teams in San Francisco, and Jony Ive and the LoveFrom team he leads will work on both OpenAI and io In-depth design and creative responsibilities on all projects of the

Sam Altman expressed high expectations for the collaboration, "AI is an incredible technology, but great tools need to be polished at the intersection of technology, design, and understanding of people and the world. No one is better at this than Jony and his team; their dedication to every aspect of the process is extraordinary." He further added, "The way we use technology could change profoundly. I hope we can bring back the same sense of joy, wonder and innovation that I felt when I first used an Apple computer 30 years ago."

Jony Ive also expressed his excitement and sense of responsibility for the collaboration: "I have a growing sense that everything I've learned over the last 30 years has led me to this moment. I feel both anxious and excited about the responsibility of the difficult work ahead, but I am very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such an important collaboration. sam and OpenAI and io The team's values and vision are a rare source of inspiration." Ive also recalls when he moved to the US thirty years ago, as a designer, he was drawn to the exhilarating and pure optimism of Silicon Valley, eager to collaborate with people who were committed to creating exceptional products that enhanced human well-being.

The merger announcement was accompanied by a photo of Sam Altman with Jony Ive, an introductory video, and a landscape image.

While the parties did not elaborate on the specifics of the "new product line" in their announcement, given Jony Ive's deep expertise in consumer electronics product design and OpenAI's leadership in large-scale language modeling and generative AI, it is widely expected that the future products will either be some sort of new AI hardware device or a revolutionary human-computer interaction experience on top of existing devices. It is widely expected that future products will either be a new type of AI hardware device or a revolutionary human-computer interaction experience on existing devices. This powerful combination undoubtedly brings great imagination to how AI can be more naturally and intuitively integrated into daily life, and at the same time sets a new benchmark for the entire technology industry in terms of the deep integration of design and technology.