OpenAI NewsJul 9, 2025, 08:00 UTC+8

A letter from Sam & Jony

Sam & Jony

OpenAI said on July 9, 2025 that the io Products, Inc. team has formally merged into OpenAI, while Jony Ive and LoveFrom remain independent. The post says the groups collaborated for 2 years and io was founded 1 year ago by Jony Ive, Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan; it does not disclose deal value, product details, or a launch timeline.

Why it matters: Not a product launch, but a high-weight org and design move. HKR-H/R are strong because OpenAI + Jony Ive points to the next AI hardware/interface fight; HKR-K passes on concrete timing, but the score stays below 85 because price, device form, and launch timing are undisclosed.

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Take

OpenAI’s most revealing move here is the boundary it drew. The io Products team formally joins OpenAI, while Jony Ive and LoveFrom stay independent and take broad design responsibilities across OpenAI. The post gives no deal value, device category, launch date, or pricing.

I don’t buy the romance around “AI needs a new interface” without harder proof. Humane Ai Pin and Rabbit R1 already showed how fast AI hardware turns into a demo artifact when it fights the phone. OpenAI has models, voice, multimodal UX, and distribution; it does not yet have Apple-grade supply-chain muscle. Hiring the former Apple design bench makes sense. Keeping Jony outside the company makes this look less like an iPhone-scale integration bet, and more like OpenAI buying a hardware option while limiting the reputational damage if the first object flops.

Source: OpenAI News · openai.com
Published: Jul 9, 2025, 08:00 UTC+8 · Jul 9, 2025