OpenAI Finalizes First AI Hardware Prototype with Jony Ive
Will OpenAI’s secretive AI hardware upend the smartphone era with a device that prioritizes calm over constant notifications? Executives from ‘OpenAI’ confirmed on November 24, 2025, that prototypes for the new device have been completed after months of collaboration with former Apple design chief Jony Ive. The project stems from OpenAI’s $6.5 billion acquisition of Ive’s startup ‘io’ in May 2025, which brought his team of 55 engineers into the fold to focus on AI-centric hardware. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, described the prototype as “jaw-droppingly good” during a Bloomberg interview at the New York Times DealBook Summit, emphasizing a design philosophy that avoids the “Times Square” chaos of current smartphones.
The device aims to integrate OpenAI’s large language models directly into physical form factors, potentially resembling screenless wearables or ambient computing tools rather than traditional gadgets. Ive, who co-designed the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, leads the hardware aesthetics and user interface, while OpenAI handles the underlying AI stack built on models like ‘GPT-4.5’ and upcoming iterations. Development accelerated post-acquisition, with the team relocating to San Francisco to prototype three distinct concepts by late October 2025. Sources indicate the hardware will leverage edge computing for on-device processing, reducing latency and enhancing privacy compared to cloud-dependent systems.
Altman hinted at a reveal timeline of two years or less, aligning with OpenAI’s aggressive infrastructure push that includes $100 billion in phased investments from Nvidia announced in July 2025. The company has diversified its supply chain, partnering with Foxconn in November 2025 to manufacture AI data center components in the U.S., which could extend to consumer hardware assembly. This move localizes production amid U.S.-China trade tensions and aims to scale output for millions of units by 2027. Early prototypes incorporate custom ASICs co-developed with Broadcom, targeting 25 TOPS of inference performance at under 5 watts—metrics that rival Qualcomm’s ‘A1200’ but optimized for generative tasks.
Competitors like Meta and Google have released AI-oriented wearables, such as ‘Ray-Ban Meta’ smart glasses with multimodal AI in 2024, but none achieved mass-market disruption. OpenAI’s entry could pressure Apple, which delayed ‘Siri’ enhancements to 2026 and faces internal debates over on-device versus cloud AI. Meta’s $14 billion deal with CoreWeave for compute in September 2025 underscores the hardware-compute bottleneck, with OpenAI securing similar pacts to train models on 10 gigawatts of Nvidia systems by late 2026. Ive’s involvement ensures ergonomic focus, with prototypes tested for “peaceful” interactions via voice and haptics, eschewing screens to combat digital fatigue documented in 2025 studies showing 40% of users experience notification overload.
OpenAI’s hardware ambitions tie into its $500 billion valuation, fueled by $40 billion in fundraising closed in August 2025 led by SoftBank. The project, codenamed ‘Atlas’ internally, extends beyond consumer devices to enterprise tools for real-time AI collaboration. With prototypes now in iteration, OpenAI plans limited beta testing with partners like Emerson Collective—backed by Laurene Powell Jobs—in Q2 2026. This positions the device as a potential trillion-dollar pivot, challenging incumbents by embedding AI natively rather than as an app layer. As Altman noted, the goal is hardware that “enhances human capability without distraction,” a shift from the 2.5 billion smartphones shipped globally in 2024.
