OpenAI is working on several AI hardware devices in collaboration with former Apple designer Jony Ive, and the first product to come out could be a smart speaker. The company is developing a smart speaker, a smart lamp, and is considering AI glasses Informationwith the speaker due out in early 2027.
The OpenAI smart speaker has an integrated camera and is designed to learn information about who is using it and what is around it. It will feature facial recognition similar to Face ID and users will be able to use the speaker to make purchases. The speaker will have AI integration so users can ask it questions and make requests.
In an internal presentation, OpenAI employees were told that the presenter would observe users and suggest actions to help them achieve goals, such as suggesting an early bedtime before a morning meeting.
Apple is working on a similar home sponge device due out this year. The home hub will feature an integrated camera and speaker for video calling and control of smart home products, and will also have deep integration with an updated version of Siri that Apple is developing.
OpenAI plans to price the speaker between $200 and $300, with a launch planned for February 2027 at the earliest. OpenAI is researching a smart lamp and smart glasses, but those products won’t be ready until 2028 or later. With the exception of the speaker, OpenAI’s hardware development is at an early stage, and other products may be discontinued.
Jony Ive has been working with OpenAI since OpenAI bought Ive’s design firm LoveFrom in May 2025. Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared some details about their AI hardware work, suggesting a prototype was in place in November 2025. At the time, Ive and Altman said the device would be “quiet” and an “active participant,” which isn’t annoying. The duo also described the device as a product that would “make people happy.”
More rumors about OpenAI’s plans emerged after a staff meeting where Ive and Altman said they didn’t want a device with a screen. A device that is probably the speaker Information say is in development, has been described as pocket-sized and contextually aware of the user’s surroundings. Altman told employees that it was “the most amazing piece of technology the world has ever seen.”
While Altman and Ive have promised the next big thing after the iPhone, there is some internal tension at OpenAI. Ive’s LoveFrom design company has remained separate from OpenAI, but LoveFrom provides hardware designs for OpenAI. It’s up to OpenAI’s hardware and software engineers to actually make the products that LoveFrom comes up with.
OpenAI staff apparently complained about LoveFrom’s secrecy and slow speed when it came to design revisions. Former Apple designer Evans Hankey leads the industrial design and I was told to make the final call on almost all the designs. Other former Apple employees working on OpenAI on hardware include Tang Tan and Scott Cannon, and Eddy Cue’s son Adam Cue works on OpenAI software.