The ChatGPT maker is betting big on a screenless, moving smart speaker as its entry into consumer hardware, while fighting off trade-secret allegations from one of tech’s most powerful players.
OpenAI is finally ready to show its hardware hand – and it’s not what many expected.
According to a Bloomberg report published Tuesday, the company’s first consumer hardware product will be a portable, screenless smart speaker designed to serve as what the company internally describes as a “humanlike AI companion that lives in the home”. The device, still in development, is being positioned as a new kind of home computer built specifically for the AI era.
But the reveal comes with a major complication: Apple sued OpenAI just last week, accusing the company of systematically stealing trade secrets to accelerate its hardware ambitions. The legal battle now threatens to derail OpenAI’s hardware launch before it even begins.
What We Know About the Device
The speaker-like product will operate entirely without a screen, relying instead on voice interaction, cameras, and environmental sensors to understand a user’s surroundings. It will include a rechargeable battery, allowing users to carry it from room to room – from the kitchen during cooking to the bedroom at night.
Functionally, the device will control smart-home appliances, play media, answer questions, respond to messages, and tap into the full range of ChatGPT’s capabilities. But OpenAI envisions something far more ambitious than a traditional voice assistant.
The device is designed to learn about its user over time, accessing digital life data such as emails to build a personalized understanding of routines and preferences. It will become more proactive as it learns – potentially suggesting an early bedtime when it detects an early meeting the next morning.
In terms of interaction, the speaker will run on GPT-Live, an advanced version of ChatGPT’s voice mode that can listen and speak simultaneously, making conversations feel more natural and fluid. Perhaps most strikingly, the device will include mechanical elements that can move on their own, designed to create the illusion that it’s “alive” rather than just a passive object waiting for commands.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive – whose hardware startup io Products OpenAI acquired last year for approximately $6.5 billion – have previously teased the project. They’ve described it as a device with “incredible contextual awareness” and suggested that early prototypes are “jaw-droppingly good”.
A Broader Hardware Ambition
The speaker is just the beginning. According to the report, OpenAI’s hardware division is currently developing about five different products. The longer-term roadmap includes a mobile AI device designed to potentially replace the smartphone, wearable products like pendants, and even home robots.
The strategic logic is clear: by building its own hardware, OpenAI gains direct control over how users interact with its AI models, bypassing the constraints of app stores and platform policies. It’s a move from software to physical presence – and a direct challenge to the established consumer-electronics giants.
The Apple Lawsuit – A Major Roadblock
But OpenAI’s hardware push has run straight into a legal wall. On July 10, Apple filed a 41-page complaint in federal court in Northern California, accusing OpenAI of trade-secret misappropriation.
The lawsuit specifically names OpenAI’s chief hardware officer Tang Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple and served as vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch. It also names Chang Liu, a former Apple electrical engineer.
Apple alleges that Liu retained his Apple-issued device after leaving and used it to access and download dozens of confidential hardware-related files. The suit further claims that Tan sent himself supplier information before leaving Apple and later used internal Apple project names and technical terminology while recruiting Apple employees. Some job candidates were allegedly asked to bring physical Apple components or design files to interviews.
Apple’s language in the complaint is unusually harsh: “OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets”. The company is seeking an injunction that could prohibit OpenAI from releasing any hardware products.
OpenAI’s Response
OpenAI has pushed back. Spokesperson Drew Pusateri told media the company was reviewing the complaint and had “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets”. The company says it has not found any evidence to support the allegations.
People familiar with the project have told Bloomberg that the device differs significantly from anything Apple currently has on the market, making it “unlikely” that it violates Apple’s trade secrets.
Timeline and Uncertainty
The speaker was initially expected to launch in 2026, but reports now point to a 2027 release. OpenAI could still unveil the product later this year, but the Apple lawsuit casts a long shadow over that timeline.
If the court grants Apple’s requested injunction, OpenAI could be barred from releasing any hardware – a potentially devastating outcome for a company that has invested billions in its hardware ambitions.
For now, OpenAI’s vision of an AI companion that moves through your home like a living presence remains just that – a vision. Whether it ever becomes a product you can buy may ultimately be decided not in a design studio, but in a courtroom.