Big Tech Trembles As OpenAI Acquire’s Apple’s Design Soul For $6.5 Billion…

There’s a pattern in tech. A cycle, if you will. Titans rise, reshape the market, achieve religious status, and then… one by one… they rot from the inside. IBM. Intel. Microsoft circa Clippy. All of them worshiped until the market remembered that nothing lasts forever, especially when your entire business model is built on pretending last decade’s innovation is still revolutionary. Apple knows this… and Apple is next on the hit list.  

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, OpenAI just went snooping into Apple’s backyard and stole their golden gnome: Jony Ive, the man responsible for turning Apple from a flailing beige box company into a $3 trillion cult with rounded edges. More specifically, OpenAI is merging with Ive’s hardware design firm, io, in a deal reportedly worth $6.5 billion, to do one thing… and one thing only… “f*k Apple up”. 

For starters, Altman wants to make hardware. He’s said as much. Not a phone though… because as it turns out, the trauma of watching Humane’s AI Pin get ratioed into oblivion was enough to scare him straight. But he wants something new. Which means, Ive’s job here is to make that disruption look sexy. He’s been working with OpenAI in the shadows for two years… but now the partnership is official. LoveFrom, Ive’s post-Apple design collective that sounds like a lingerie brand but is actually a high-concept industrial design firm, will take over all design responsibilities for OpenAI and io. Translation: the AI apocalypse will be beautifully chamfered.

(Source: CNN) 

As for the product, nobody knows what it is… yet. However, what we do know is that Ive’s has been been prototyping a device in secret, and Altman claims he’s already holding one. No follow-ups allowed. The announcement video was scripted like a eulogy for the smartphone. Ive’s spoke about the need to move beyond “legacy products” and the moral fatigue of current computing experiences. But, but, but… there was no explanation given for how this new device avoids becoming the same thing in six months. 

Also, keep in mind, this acquisition follows OpenAI’s $3 billion purchase of Windsurf, another AI hardware company no one had heard of until OpenAI bought it. That brings their hardware tab to $9.5 billion in under a month. Not surprisingly, there’s no operating revenue attached to these deals or even a launch timeline. However, the company insists this is a necessary step to reimagine computing from the ground up. Meanwhile, Apple has partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri… but that’s about all Apple is going to get. The problem though? Apple’s entire empire is built on controlling the interface. The thing you touch. The device you carry. The platform you’re locked into. That’s the moat. Which is why Altman and Ive are walking right past it… as in they’re skipping the category entirely by building their own. A.k.a. Starting over. 

(Source: Giphy) 

And yet, there are no details or name for this “new product”. There’s no clarification on whether this is a headworn device, a handheld, or something that sits on a table and stares back at you. There is only the assertion that it is revolutionary. Which is enough to get anyone in tech all hot and bothered… especially Apple investors.

Of course, only time will tell how “disruptive” this new brain child of Sam Altman’s will be… but for now, the deal is done, the prototype exists, and the product will be “revealed” next year. Meaning, things are about to get really interesting, friends. So keep your eyes on this story going forward. Until next time… 

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Stocks.News holds positions in Apple, Intel, and Microsoft as mentioned in the article.