OpenAI Gears Up for 2027 AI Hardware Push by Recruiting Apple Talent and Suppliers

OpenAI is making bold moves. The company that brought us ChatGPT is now venturing into hardware, recruiting some of Apple’s top design, engineering, and manufacturing experts. It has quietly snapped up ex-Apple talent at least 25 people this year alone including those who’ve worked on interfaces, audio, cameras, and wearables. Alongside this, OpenAI is leveraging Apple’s trusted manufacturing partners, Luxshare and Goertek, to build its supply chain backbone. Under new leadership in its hardware division, the company is targeting a new timeline: launching its first consumer AI gadget around late 2026 or early 2027. With design legend Jony Ive involved via his startup io (acquired by OpenAI), the emerging vision appears to be a serious effort to create hardware that centers on AI, rather than merely embedding AI into existing phones and computers.