Sir Jony Ive's OpenAI device gets a tentative release date – although we still don't yet know what it is

There’s a very good chance you'll best know Sir Jony Ive because of his 27-year tenure at Apple. In his time at the Cupertino company, Ive was responsible for the design of the iMac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod, so it’s safe to say his CV is good.

After leaving Apple, Ive founded his own company called LoveFrom, but also created another start-up, io. It was that latter firm that was acquired by OpenAI back in May 2025 and the collaboration is the one set to see a new hardware device.

When will OpenAI and Jony Ive's device launch?

When OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and Jony Ive put out the announcement of acquisition last year, the post said the two were looking forward to "try to create a new generation of AI-powered computers" together.

Since then, just in case you haven’t been following along, there has been some talk about the first product being earbuds to rival AirPods, while others have suggested a small, AI-powered wearable.

Currently, we still don’t know what the first hardware device from Ive and Altman’s company will be, but the timeline has recently been made a little more concrete. An exclusive report a few weeks back saw OpenAI's chief global affairs officer, Chris Lehane, say: “OpenAI is 'on track' to unveil its first device in the second half of 2026."

It now seems it will be at least February 2027. According to a report by Business Insider, Lehane’s timeline referred only to the product reveal date, while a sworn statement from Peter Welinder, vice president and general manager at OpenAI, said the company expects its “first hardware device will not ship to customers before the end of February 2027”.

We might not know what that product will be yet, but at least we know we have over a year to wait. It’s best not to get too excited just yet.