- Sundar Pichai praised Jony Ive's design legacy in a recent interview and talked about AI's "exciting" impact on hardware.
- OpenAI acquired ex-Apple design boss Jony Ive's startup, IO, for nearly $6.5 billion to collaborate on a line of AI products.
- Ive and Altman's announcement coincided with Google's I/O conference, echoing last year's timing.
OpenAI and iPhone designer Jony Ive's nearly $6.5 billion deal got the tech industry talking last week — and Google's CEO has now weighed in.
Like many tech leaders, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is leading his company through a mission to build out its AI empire with both software and hardware products. Meanwhile, the hiring war for top talent has heated up as companies spend big to execute their goals. OpenAI's latest move was to bring in a not-so-secret weapon that Apple had long leaned on for his design chops: Jony Ive.
When asked about the nearly $6.5 billion deal to acquire Ive's secretive startup, IO, and collaborate on hardware with his design collective, LoveFrom, Pichai praised the former Apple design chief.
"Stepping back, Jony Ive is one of a kind," Pichai said during an interview for the "Decoder" podcast.
He pointed to Ive's storied track record, which includes leading the design of iconic Apple products like the iMac, iPhone, and Apple Watch. Although the pair have only met a few times, Pichai said, he and many others in the tech industry have long been admirers of Ive's work.
"I think it's exciting," Pichai said. "There's so much innovation ahead, and I think people tend to underestimate this moment."
To underscore his point, Pichai reminded listeners that Google, the most popular search engine in the world, didn't exist when the internet was invented. We're in a similar moment with AI, the Google CEO said — except he predicts that AI will be "bigger than the internet."
"There are going to be companies, products, categories created, which we aren't aware of today," he said.
While Pichai said he's excited to see what Ive and OpenAI's Sam Altman have in store, he said Google is also going to be "doing a lot" of innovation as AI shifts the industry. That doesn't mean a mystery AI hardware product will replace the smart gadgets we use today, Pichai said.
Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Although Altman and Ive haven't announced exactly what future products will look like, consumers can expect a "family of AI products," the pair said in a video last week. Reports have indicated the pair is working on an AI companion device, and Altman has previously said he has "no interest in trying to compete with a smartphone."
OpenAI went public about the deal on Wednesday while Google's annual I/O developer conference was in full swing — a move that didn't appear to be lost on Pichai.
It's not the first time the ChatGPT maker dropped a big announcement around the same time as Google I/O. Last year, the company announced its AI model GPT-4o on May 13, a day before Google's 2024 I/O conference kicked off.
"I'm looking forward to an 'Open I/O' announcement ahead of Google I/O the night before," Pichai said.
