“Wow, wow, wow…” — first‑day hot‑takes
“Oh my God, this is probably the biggest story… I was just like wow, wow, wow. I could not believe this was happening.”
“OpenAI is putting enormous pressure on itself. Whatever this mystery project is, it’s not a phone, it’s not glasses, it’s not a Humane‑style pin. If they don’t really knock our socks off, this will look like a $6.5 billion blunder. If they do — watch out.”
“If anyone has the résumé and pedigree to deliver on these big question marks, it’s Jony Ive … I have faith he’ll create something compelling.”
“What did they really buy? Did Ive have a secret lab Altman just had to own — or are they simply paying to keep him out of a rival’s hands?”
Apple’s AI mis‑steps raise the stakes
Apple’s own generative‑AI push has been uneven:
- Delayed features — several flagship “Apple Intelligence” capabilities now won’t land until iOS 18.3/18.4 in 2025, damping hopes of an iPhone 16 super‑cycle.
- Siri reboot — Apple is rebuilding Siri around a new large‑language‑model architecture after earlier work stalled, with engineers “racing to fix a rash of bugs.”
- Embarrassing glitches — AI‑generated Apple News summaries were so inaccurate that the BBC demanded they be withdrawn.
- And then there’s the failed car project – which most likely incorporated AI self driving capabilities
Don’t call us conspiracy theorists …
Just days before the acquisition became public, Apple’s services chief Eddy Cue gave sworn testimony in the Google search‑monopoly remedies trial:
“You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now … AI is a huge technological shift that opens the door for new entrants.”
Did Cue already know Ive and Altman were about to announce an AI‑first device aimed straight at the iPhone’s long‑term crown? We’ll let you decide.
Ive: from aluminum to algorithms
Long revered for sculpting unibody aluminum, Ive is now designing hardware where the intelligence is as tangible as the object itself — proof that 21st‑century industrial design starts with the model as much as the metal.
What if Ive had never left Apple?
Had Ive stayed, his clout might have directed the company’s scattered AI work into a single, purpose‑built device — turning Cupertino from AI laggard into agenda‑setter and sparing Eddy Cue that ominous courtroom warning. What if Ive and Cook had committed to continue working together? We’ll leave these “what if’s” here for now.
Final Update (for now) — OpenAI CFO interview
In her first on‑air comments since the deal closed, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC’s Kate Rooney that the $6.5 billion price tag is a bet on a “brand‑new era of computing” in which AI becomes the substrate for everyday interaction—just as the PC defined the internet age and the iPhone defined mobile. Friar argued that Jony Ive and his hand‑picked team have already proven they can shape such epochal interfaces, and that the next platform will be “a lot more multimodal”—built around sight, sound, and conversation rather than glass slabs and touch icons. In short, OpenAI is buying the people who can both envision and ship that future.
Asked how an early‑stage outfit with no public product earns a multi‑billion‑dollar valuation, Friar said the company is “betting on great people,” name‑checking veterans like Tung Tan (iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods) who know how to scale from concept to supply chain. Hardware, she stressed, is not an end in itself but “a part of that next value‑add” that will persuade the vast free‑tier ChatGPT audience to upgrade into a richer subscription bundle—echoing the way premium imaging features in DALL·E 3 have driven recent paid uptake.
Rooney pressed Friar on why OpenAI didn’t simply partner with Apple as it has on other fronts. Friar’s answer: innovation moves fastest when you don’t “single‑thread” yourself through one vendor. OpenAI will “continue to work closely with Apple on their device,” she said, but wants freedom to explore multiple hardware visions simultaneously. Coming less than a week after Apple’s Eddy Cue warned that AI could dethrone the iPhone, the timing feels almost choreographed—an implicit reminder that tomorrow’s dominant device might just carry an OpenAI logo instead of a bitten apple.
Our coverage of Open AI buying Jony Ive’s hardware company:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Sources
- CNBC Television – Jony Ive/OpenAI segment with Steve Kovach
- AI Inside podcast – May 2025 episode
- MacRumors – Some Apple Intelligence features delayed to 2025
- The Verge – Apple trying to get “LLM Siri” back on track
- BBC – Corporation condemns inaccurate Apple News AI alerts
- The Verge – Eddy Cue: “You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now”
- CNBC Television – Kate Rooney interview with OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar
