Leaders from io — the consumer hardware team OpenAI recently acquired from Jony Ive’s design studio for $6.5 billion — testified in a court filing that the first device they plan to release won’t be an “in-ear device” or a “wearable.” They also said the AI device won’t ship until “at least” 2026.
“The prototype Sam Altman referenced in the video is at least a year away from being offered for sale,” Tang Tan, io’s chief hardware officer and a former Apple design leader, said. “Its design is not yet finalized, but it is not an in-ear device, nor a wearable device.”
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OpenAI bought Apple designer Ive’s startup io in May for $6.4 million. This deal pushed OpenAI into the world of hardware for the first time. However, recently OpenAI had to remove public references to the io brand (which stands for “input/output”) due to a temporary restraining order that was granted on behalf of an audio device startup called Iyo. OpenAI said it has taken down a page on its website announcing the company’s acquisition of io. The company also claimed this wouldn’t affect the deal itself.
“This page is temporarily down due to a court order following a trademark complaint from iyO about our use of the name ‘io’. We don’t agree with the complaint and are reviewing our options,” said an OpenAI spokesperson.
iyO, however provided emails showing that leaders from io and OpenAI including CEO Sam Altman, knew about its existence and even asked to demo the product — a yet-to-be-released, in-ear headphone billed as “the world’s first audio computer,” in an attempt to show that OpenAI deliberately infringed on its trademark. OpenAI responses saying “For many months after its founding, io surveyed the existing commercial offerings and engaged in prototyping exercises, as it considered a broad range of form factors, including objects that were desktop-based and mobile, wireless and wired, wearable and portable. As part of these early efforts, io purchased a wide range of earbuds, hearing aids, and at least 30 different headphone sets from a variety of different companies,” in its opposition to the lawsuit.
READ: OpenAI buys iPhone designer John Ive’s startup io (May 22, 2025)
While Tan declared that io’s first piece of hardware won’t be an in-ear device, this evidence indicates the company has considered that category. Marwan Rammnah, an io employee told Tang in an email in late March that they should consider buying 3D scans of human ears “as a helpful starting point on ergonomics and HF.” And in another email earlier that month, Altman responded to iyO’s offer to personally invest in the company by writing: “Thanks but I’m working on something competitive so will respectfully pass!” However it is still not known what OpenAI’s first device with io would be.