Bloomberg: OpenAI's first hardware product is a screenless speaker built to feel alive

OpenAI's first piece of consumer hardware will reportedly be a screenless smart speaker, according to Bloomberg reporting from July 14 citing people familiar with the plans. The device is described as portable — rechargeable and movable between rooms, or left plugged into one spot — with a camera and sensors built in, and mechanical elements intended to create a sense that it is alive rather than simply an object responding to commands.

The team behind it is the one OpenAI acquired for $6.4 billion last year: io Products, led by former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive, alongside other ex-Apple hires including Tang Tan and Chang Liu. Bloomberg reports a 2027 release, with the caveat that the timeline is subject to change.

The lawsuit sitting right next to this story

Tang Tan and Chang Liu are not incidental names. They are two of the people Apple names directly in its trade-secret complaint against OpenAI, alleging the pair took confidential Apple hardware and design information with them. This device report means the io Products team's first real output is arriving in headlines the same season as the lawsuit over how that team was assembled. Asked by Bloomberg about the litigation, OpenAI said it takes Apple's allegations "seriously" but was "not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit." Whatever the device turns out to be, it will be the first concrete thing the public can look at and compare against what Apple says was taken.

A late, premium entrant into a category someone already shipped

The form factor bet is worth naming. Where the smart-glasses wave — Even Realities and others — puts the interface on your face, this puts an ambient presence in a room. It's also not a first mover: Google's Gemini-powered smart speaker for the home already shipped on June 25 at $99.99, built around Gemini 3.5 and 360-degree audio. If OpenAI's device lands in 2027 as reported, it arrives well after Google has already put a comparable product in front of consumers.

What is not established

Everything about this device — its form, its features, its timeline — comes from Bloomberg's sourcing, not an OpenAI announcement. OpenAI has not confirmed the product exists in this form. No pricing has been reported. No name has been confirmed. Bloomberg's own framing flags the 2027 target as subject to change, which for a hardware product this early in development is closer to a direction than a date. Treat this as a credible report from a track record wire on hardware leaks, not as a finished product.