Jony Ive's career was mainly at Apple, designing products like the iPhone and Mac. Now he'll work at OpenAI, which bought his AI device startup io.

The all-stock deal with OpenAI values Ive’s AI hardware startup io at $6.5 billion—and is set to be a major windfall for the man who designed the iPhone.

OpenAI forms a new hardware division with the io team, led by Jony Ive, to develop AI-native devices, possibly launching a voice-first product as early as 2026.

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.

As OpenAI competes with tech giants such as Google, Meta and Apple, it's recruiting some of the most well-known figures in the tech industry.

With Ive leading design, OpenAI aims to pair the tech behind its ChatGPT chatbot with product design expertise that made the iPhone a bestseller.

Jony Ive became renowned for a meticulous design aesthetic that shaped the cultural zeitgeist during a 27-year career at Apple, which he left in 2019.

OpenAI will buy Ive’s startup in a $6.5 billion deal, as Ive and CEO Sam Altman work on new generation of devices and other AI products.

More details are trickling out about Jony Ive and Sam Altman’s new AI device. In a post on Thursday, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says his research indicates that the device could be larger than Humane’s AI pin, but with a “form factor as compact and elegant as an iPod Shuffle.”