The purchase — the largest in OpenAI’s history — will provide the company with a dedicated unit for developing AI-powered devices.

Jony Ive, Apple’s former head of design, will take over design at OpenAI after the Sam Altman-led company acquired Ive’s hardware startup in a deal valued at $6.5 billion, with the new pairing expected to unveil a product within the next year as a potential competitor to Ive’s former employer.

Jony Ive's career was mainly at Apple, designing products like the iPhone and Mac. Now he'll work at OpenAI, which bought his AI device startup io.