Jony Ive and OpenAI's Sam Altman Seeking Funding for Personal AI Device
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and former Apple design chief Jony Ive have officially teamed up to design an AI-powered personal device and are seeking funding, reports The Information.
Little is known about the AI device at this time, but it won't look like a smartphone. Altman is a major investor in the Humane AI pin, a wearable AI device that does not have a screen, so it's possible he will create a similar product with Ive.
News of a possible partnership between Ive and Altman first surfaced last fall, but talks were in the early stages and nothing was official then. Ive and Altman's unnamed startup is now sourcing funds from major venture capitalists, with Ive aiming to raise up to $1 billion in funding.
OpenAI could own a piece of the business, and the duo has also been in talks with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. Potential investors include Thrive Capital, an OpenAI investor, and Emerson Collective, a venture capital firm and philanthropic organization founded by Laurene Powell Jobs.
Ive left his role as Apple design chief in 2019, and while he still worked with the Cupertino company as a consultant for several years after through his firm LoveFrom, Ive and Apple stopped working together entirely in 2022.
Popular Stories
The Apple Sales Coach app will begin using AI-generated video presenters to deliver personalized training content to retail salespeople around the world.
In a new video message, an Apple trainer said that the update addresses a limitation of traditional training programs: the impossibility of creating truly individualized content for hundreds of thousands of salespeople across different...
OpenAI this week introduced ChatGPT Images 2.0, which the company says brings a new era of image generation. Images 2.0 is an updated model that can better handle complex visual tasks.
It is able to follow detailed instructions, placing and relating objects accurately, preserving fine detail, and rendering dense layouts. Images 2.0 is OpenAI’s first image model with thinking capabilities,...
OpenAI has announced the release of GPT-5.5, the latest upgrade to the company's family of models powering its ChatGPT and Codex apps.
OpenAI describes GPT-5.5 as better at multi-step work, claiming it can plan, use tools, and verify its own output with less hand-holding. The model is said to offer gains in agentic coding, computer use, and early-stage scientific research.
GPT-5.5...
