I had been considering doing a startup in this space, I thought Humane and rabbit are directionally correct. This kinda makes me want to do it even more, that would be a fun team to compete against.
OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive
41–50 of 1001 posts
Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive
#42The ability for a CEO to be a founder of another company and then buy that company with the company he is a CEO of seems incredibly sketchy. See also: bullshit idea that someone can actually run multiple companies, it’s ceo welfare and vanity titles.
No one is forcing you to invest in said companies. As an investor it's up to you to do due diligence on the board, conflict of interest disclosures, whether sizeable acquisitions require shareholder approval, etc.
This is on top of blanket legal protections that already exist in case you didn't want to do your own DD, like duty of loyalty, care and fiduciary; SEC disclosures, AD @ the DoJ, FTC, etc.
Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive
#43The name is "IO". A day after the Google I/O keynote. Another purposely planned derailment. It's probably some form of glasses with ChatGPT on it but obvious glazing, pomp and ceremony of this announcement talking directly to Apple. Apple has 1 year to respond.
Apple is failing horrible at “AI” currently but I don’t see what the big deal with Jony Ive is in 2025. He had a massive (if not single-handed) impact on some of the _worst_ hardware Apple has ever shipped, thinner, thinner, thinner to the product’s detriment and butterfly keyboards. I lay that all at Ive’s feet.
Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive
#44The most expensive aquihire in history
Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive
#45OpenAI announcement: https://openai.com/sam-and-jony/
Is this an m&a press release or an engagement announcement
The hyperminimal white-text-on-black-background is more of an Apple-ism from their corporate announcements back during the Jobs/Ive days.
The center-justified serif text is new, though.
Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive
#46No question that Ive is a legend, but I do think the fall of Humane (also ex-Apple) and the challenges at Meta, Apple, and Google in terms of VR/AR adoption (Meta Ray Ban, Apple Vision, Google Glasses and the new thing) are instructive here. The $6.5B almost feels like the largest ever aquihire.
But Meta is thriving with Meta Ray Bans, they have sold over 2M as of few months back. (Yes I know that number seems small compared to other devices, but for a new form factor, that seems like a great early success)
Where is they AR/VR part in the Ray Bans?
It’s cameras, speakers, microphones but no display.
Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive
#47Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive
#48Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive
#49That is an insane amount to hire Johnny Ive. Just to signal to the market that OpenAI is getting into hardware, what on earth could they be building towards. They’ve been writing some big checks off late, these costs will have to be justified soon enough.
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Re: OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive
#50This is a sign of OpenAI's weakness.
Altman is desperately trying to use OpenAI's inflated valuation to buy some kind of advantage. Which is why he's buying ads, paying $6.5 billion in stock to Jony Ive, and $3 billion for a VSCode fork created in a few months.
Almost anything makes sense when you see your valuation going to zero unless you can figure something out.