OpenAI’s biggest acquisitions before it took over Jony Ive’s io: Details

OpenAI yesterday announced that it is acquiring io, Jony Ive's startup, in a deal that is worth $6.5 billion. This will bring on Jony, who designed some of the most popular Apple products, as the creative head of OpenAI to create devices for the generative AI arena.

Having said that, it is interesting to note that Ive's isn't the only acquisition that OpenAI has made so far. In fact, OpenAI has reportedly acquired several other companies over the years; here are the details.

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OpenAI Acquired Windsurf In May 2025

OpenAI acquired a company called Windsurf, formerly known as Codieum, for $3 billion earlier this month in May 2025. VentureBeat reported that OpenAI needed to arm the developer ecosystem with superior coding capabilities and also become the primary interface that deals with AI agents.

Rockset Acquisition

In June 2024, Sam Altman-led OpenAI did acquire Rockset, which was founded by Indian-origin founders. “We will integrate Rockset’s technology to power our retrieval infrastructure across products, and members of Rockset’s world-class team will join OpenAI,” OpenAI said in June 2024, post the acquisiton. 

Global Illumination

OpenAI acquired Global Illumination in August 2023. While the value of the deal is undisclosed, it is worth noting that this startup was founded by ex-Instagram employees. This brought a lot of experience in product building to the company.

Multi

OpenAI acquired Multi in 2024. Multi, a startup based out of New York City, reportedly focuses on screen share and collaboration tech, especially for workers who are using Macs, as per VentureBeat. 

“Recently, we’ve been increasingly asking ourselves how we should work with computers. Not on or using computers, but truly with computers. With AI. We believe it’s one of the most important product questions of our time,” Multi said. It added, “And so, we’re beyond excited to share that Multi is joining OpenAI!”

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