OpenAI Goes All In on Hardware, Buys Glass Imaging for $300M+

California: OpenAI has reportedly acquired Glass Imaging, a startup specializing in AI-enhanced smartphone camera technology, in a deal valued at more than $300 million, according to reports from a leading journal. The Los Altos-based company was established in 2019 and had previously secured roughly $30 million from investors before the acquisition.

Glass Imaging was co-founded by Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, both of whom are Apple alumni who were part of the engineering team behind the iPhone’s Portrait Mode feature. That experience shapes the company’s current approach. Rather than applying AI-based edits to photos after capture, Glass Imaging trains neural networks on the specific hardware characteristics of individual camera systems, accounting for variations across different smartphone models, so that image quality improves at the point of capture itself.

OpenAI has not yet responded to requests for comment on the deal.

The acquisition adds to mounting speculation that OpenAI is developing consumer hardware products. Recent reports have pointed to the company potentially working on a smartphone built around AI agents that could replace traditional apps, along with earbuds targeted for a 2026 launch, and a screenless, mobile speaker device described as its first hardware product.

This isn’t OpenAI’s first move into device design. In 2025, CEO Sam Altman and renowned Apple designer Jony Ive disclosed a partnership on a hardware venture called io, following OpenAI’s $6.5 billion acquisition of Ive’s design firm.