OpenAI said on Wednesday that it's buying Jony Ive's AI devices startup io for about $6.4 billion in an all-equity deal that pushes that artificial intelligence company firmly into the world of hardware.

Ive is taking on "deep creative and design responsibilities across OpenAI and io," the company said in a statement. OpenAI said that io is coming in-house, while Ive and his "creative collective" called LoveFrom will stay independent.

In a blog post on Wednesday from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive, the pair said that io was founded a year ago by Ive, along with Apple alumni Scott Cannon, Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, who briefly took over Ive's role at Apple after he departed.

"The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco," the post said.

OpenAI said it's paying $5 billion in the transaction, as it already owns 23% of the company. Altman wrote in a post on X that he believes Ive is "the greatest designer in the world."

The purchase is by far OpenAI's largest and comes weeks after the company agreed to buy AI-assisted coding tool Windsurf for $3 billion. Prior to that, OpenAI acquired analytics database company Rockset for an undisclosed sum in 2024.

Ive announced in 2019 that he was leaving Apple, where he was the longtime chief design officer, to start LoveFrom. Airbnb said in 2020 that Ive was consulting with the company on hiring and future products. The New York Times reported last year that LoveFrom's clients pay the firm up to $200 million a year and that its designers at the time were working on projects for Christie's, Airbnb and Ferrarri.

LoveFrom says on its website that it was founded by Ive and designer Marc Newson, but the doesn't say anything about what the company does or include any mention of io.

Ive is responsible for designing Apple's most iconic products, including the iPod, iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air. He also helped design Apple's new Cupertino headquarters, called Apple Park, a project that began in 2004 with the campus officially opening in 2019.

News of the acquisition comes as OpenAI, which was recently valued at $300 billion in a funding round led by SoftBank, is rushing to stay ahead in the generative AI race, where competitors including Google, Anthropic and Elon Musk's xAI are investing heavily and regularly rolling out new products. Part of staying ahead in that race includes shoring up its hardware operations.

To further its hardware ambitions, OpenAI hired the former head of Meta's Orion augmented reality glasses initiative in November to lead its robotics and consumer hardware efforts. Caitlin "CK" Kalinowski wrote in an announcement at the time that the role would "initially focus on OpenAI's robotics work and partnerships to help bring AI into the physical world and unlock its benefits for humanity."

Also late last year, OpenAI invested in Physical Intelligence, a robot startup based in San Francisco, which raised $400 million at a $2.4 billion valuation. Other investors included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The startup focuses on "bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world," according to its website, by developing large-scale AI models and algorithms to power robots. 

WATCH: Ive and Altman teaming up