io Team Merges into OpenAI: Model Companies Begin Expanding into Native AI Devices and Interaction Gateways
OpenAI and Jony Ive announced a partnership in May 2025, and an update in July confirmed that the io Products team has officially merged into OpenAI.
Frontier model companies are expanding into hardware and interaction design through team integration, with competitive boundaries extending from APIs and software products to new device gateways.
Native AI devices require co-design of models, sensors, low-latency inference, privacy, and continuous interaction; simply adding a voice interface is insufficient.
Model platforms are beginning to absorb product design and hardware capabilities, potentially reshaping the distribution relationships among phones, wearables, and personal agents.
Hardware expansion increases supply chain and channel risks, but may also provide model companies with more stable user gateways and context.
Observe the first product form, cloud-edge division, supply chain, privacy boundaries, and frequency of real-world tasks.