Sam Altman is joining forces with design guru Jony Ive and Steve Jobs' widow to build a new AI device company
Theo Wargo/WireImage via Getty Images; Kent Nishimura via Getty Images; Jemal Countess via Getty Images
- Sam Altman is joining forces with former Apple design czar Jony Ive to make an AI-centric device.
- Altman's new venture has received funding from Ive and Steve Jobs' widow, Laurene Powell Jobs.
- Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky arranged for Altman and Ive to meet last year.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is working on a new AI device startup with former Apple design chief Jony Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of the late Apple founder Steve Jobs.
News of the collaboration was reported on by The Information in September 2023. Ive confirmed it in a profile published by The New York Times on Saturday.
According to The Times, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky arranged for Altman and Ive to meet last year. Airbnb had engaged Ive's design firm, LoveFrom, to work on several projects.
Ive started LoveFrom in 2019 after nearly 30 years at Apple, where he led design efforts for the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and the Apple Watch.
Ive and Altman met several times for dinner, where they discussed the potential of launching a new AI-centered computing device, per The Times. Eventually, they agreed to build it together.
Altman's new venture has been raising money privately, and has taken funds from both Ive and Emerson Collective, an impact investing and philanthropy firm founded by Powell Jobs. According to The Times, the startup is on track to raise up to $1 billion in start-up funding by the end of 2024.
Marc Newson, who cofounded LoveFrom with Ive, told The Times that they were still figuring out the product and its release date.
In October 2023, Altman expressed his interest in AI devices while speaking at The Wall Street Journal's Tech Live event.
"I'm interested in this topic, I think it is possible," Altman told The Journal's tech columnist Joanna Stern at the event.
"I do think every sufficiently big, new technology enables some new computing platform. But lots of ideas, but all at the very nascent stage."
Notably, Altman told Stern in October 2023 that he didn't think AI devices would eclipse smartphones.
"Smartphones are great. I have no interest in trying to go compete with a smartphone. It's a phenomenal thing at what it does," Altman said.
"But I think it's well worth the effort of talking about or thinking about what we can make now that before we had computers that could think, or computers that could understand whatever you wanna call, was not possible. And if the answer is nothing, it would be a little bit disappointing."
To be sure, Altman and Ive aren't the only ones seeing potential in an AI-centric device.
Former Apple employees Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno cofounded their own AI startup, Humane in 2019 and launched their first product, the Ai Pin in November. However, the pin got bad reviews regarding its capability at rollout.
In May, Bloomberg reported that Humane was looking for a buyer and is seeking a price of between $750 million and $1 billion. The company was valued at $850 million last year, per The Information.
The company saw more returns than purchases of the Ai Pin between May and August this year, The Verge reported last month, citing internal sales data it had obtained. Zoz Cuccias, a spokesperson for Humane, told The Verge that the company would not comment on financial data, and would refer the matter to their legal counsel.
Representatives for Altman at OpenAI and Powell Jobs at Emerson Collective did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.