According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter, OpenAI is aggressively poaching engineers from Apple’s hardware division. This recruitment drive is reportedly fueling a new hardware initiative led by none other than former Apple design legend, Jony Ive. For years, Apple’s design team has seen a steady stream of departures to LoveFrom, Jony Ive’s independent design studio. However, the stakes have recently changed. OpenAI has acquired “io,” Ive’s previously secret AI startup, in a massive deal valued at $6 billion.
This acquisition has formalized the relationship between Sam Altman’s AI giant and Ive’s design prowess. As Altman and Ive hinted earlier this year, they are collaborating on a new family of hardware products expected to debut as early as next year. Gurman reports that in just the past month alone, OpenAI has onboarded more than 40 new employees for its devices group. A significant portion of these new hires are coming directly from Apple.
Former industrial design head Evans Hankey and former hardware engineering executive Tang Tan have already joined the initiative. However, the recruitment has moved beyond executive leadership to rank-and-file engineers who are critical to daily operations. It is no secret inside Apple that this poaching is viewed as a serious problem. Apple’s hardware engineering team, led by John Ternus, is currently in the middle of its own ambitious AI-driven hardware roadmap.
Are you excited to see what Jony Ive and OpenAI build together? Let us know in the comments below! Stay updated with the latest news on this by downloading the Appleosophy App from the App Store or by visiting our website.
