Altman x Ive: The $6.5B Bet on Post-Phone AI

OpenAI’s Sam Altman and legendary Apple designer Jony Ive are quietly building a sleek new screenless hardware future—where AI isn’t just an assistant, it’s a companion.

There are many kinds of love—first love, romantic, erotic, platonic, forbidden, performative. Each capable of sparking cinematic beginnings, chaotic unravelings, and everything in between. But what happens when love is replaced by obsession? When technology and design merge—not just to reflect the future, but to manufacture it? To rewire human experience through hardware so advanced, so aesthetically precise, it turns artificial intelligence into something sensual, ambient, and indispensable.

It could look like a nerd’s fever dream—or a screenless, sentient companion straight out of Star Trek’s Holodeck. And that, supposedly, is what Sam Altman and Jony Ive are building: the next great interface between humans and machines.

We’re all guessing. But the stakes are massive.

Last week, Altman—OpenAI’s high priest of disruption—dropped $6.5 billion to acquire io, a stealth hardware startup birthed by legendary Apple designer Jony Ive. Yes, that Jony Ive—the one who sculpted the iPhone into a talisman of modern life and turned tech into high fashion.

So what kind of breakthrough personal technology might emerge from this high-stakes affair between two titans—one who brought AI into the center of our digital lives, and the other who turned objects into obsessions?

Altman has been relentlessly pitching himself as the next great visionary—engineering a narrative to convince investors and the public that he’s on the brink of changing the world, much like Steve Jobs did with the iPhone in 2009.

And he’s dropping clues.

He recently previewed the device for his staff, calling it “the biggest thing we’ve ever done as a company,” and claiming it could add $1 trillion in value. He and Ive plan to ship 100 million AI-powered “companions”—objects that live with you, learn you, and maybe even replace your phone. No screens. No friction. Just ambient intelligence in its slickest physical form. 

In the teaser—a 9-minute soft-sci-fi flick featuring two friends meandering through suspiciously sunny, unnaturally vibrant San Francisco—Altman declares:

“Jony recently gave me one of the prototypes of the device to take home... I think it is the coolest piece of technology the world will have ever seen.”

Minimalist. Screenless. Possibly wearable. Definitely mysterious.

Could it be a pendant, a whisper-thin lens, or some ultra-slick, iPod Shuffle-like object that uses voice, gesture, and context to replace your phone, laptop, and assistant in one move? A headless computer? A bracelet that projects your digital life in midair? A visor that collapses your cloud into a single lens?

Whatever it is, it has to be revolutionary. Because everything that came before—Humane’s AI Pin, Rabbit’s R1, even Google Glass—failed to get it right. Clunky. Underwhelming. Uncool.

Ive and Altman are aiming to create the first physical AI product that doesn’t just function—it seduces. That integrates invisibly into your life but knows everything about it —an “external brain”. As Jony himself says in the intro:

“The technology that we are using to deliver and connect us to unimaginable products—they’re decades old.”

Translation? Phones are over. Interfaces are obsolete. It’s time to design beyond the screen.

And this isn’t a solo act. Alongside Ive, three of Apple’s top engineering minds—Tang Tan, Shota Aoyagi, and Wan Si—are part of the mission. If there’s going to be a next-gen device that redefines how we interact with technology, it will likely come from this crew.

But the video? It raises eyebrows.

Extras move like NPCs in matching outfits. The city looks sterilized. The whole thing feels… choreographed. Aesthetic choices scream corporate relatability™—the kind designed to appeal to everyone while revealing almost nothing.

And there’s more: the video was directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) and produced with backing from Laurene Powell Jobs—yes, Steve Jobs’ widow—who not only helped launch Guggenheim’s Concordia Studio, but is also a key funder of Ive’s secretive venture, OI.

Call it coincidence —or a not-so-subtle legacy flex.

Still, the lingering question: why isn’t Altman building this with Microsoft? They’ve reportedly poured over $13 billion into OpenAI, hold profit-sharing rights, and power the whole thing on Azure. Is this a stealth pivot away from Big Tech? Or just a more controlled, independent moonshot?

Whatever the angle, the first product from this beautifully choreographed alliance is expected in 2026. Production is already underway.

If it lives up to the hype, this could be the moment when AI stops being a tool—and becomes something we live with.

Until then, we’re left with speculation. A shiny teaser. A prototype shrouded in mystery. And the eerie sense that this might be the closest we’ve ever come to designing the future—and falling in love with it.

Or maybe not. But for $6.5 billion, it better be.