OpenAI buys smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for $300 million, report says
OpenAI acquired smartphone camera startup Glass Imaging for over $300 million, deepening rumored hardware ambitions after its $6.5 billion io deal.
OpenAI bought Glass Imaging, a Los Altos startup founded in 2019 by former Apple engineers Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop who led Apple's Portrait Mode team, per a Wall Street Journal report. Glass Imaging had raised about $30 million and uses neural networks that learn individual camera systems to improve image quality at capture time. The acquisition fuels speculation about OpenAI hardware plans including smartphones, earbuds, and AI companion devices, following its $6.5 billion purchase of Jony Ive's io startup in 2025.
- Deal valued at over $300 million per WSJ report.
- Founders are ex-Apple engineers behind Portrait Mode.
- Follows OpenAI's $6.5 billion acquisition of Jony Ive's io in 2025.
- Signals continued push into consumer AI hardware.
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OpenAI has bought smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging in a deal worth over $300 million, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The company, founded in 2019 and based in Los Altos, California, had previously raised about $30 million in funding from investors.
Glass Imaging was founded by Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, a pair of former Apple engineers who previously led the team that developed Apple’s Portrait Mode. This background directly informs the work they now do at Glass Imaging, where they use AI to overcome the physical size constraints of smartphone cameras. Rather than using AI to edit a photo after it’s been taken, Glass Imaging uses neural networks to learn about individual camera systems — like the different cameras on various smartphone models — to yield better images from the moment the shutter clicks.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The ChatGPT maker is rumored to be working on its own hardware, like smartphones, earbuds, and AI companion devices.
In 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and famed Apple designer Jony Ive revealed that they had been working together on a device startup called io, when OpenAI bought Ive’s company for $6.5 billion.
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