OpenAI buys startup working on smartphone camera: report

OpenAI has acquired smartphone camera manufacturer Glass Imaging for a reported $300 million, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Founded in 2019, Glass Imaging is headquartered in Los Altos, California, and was previously backed by $30 million in investor funding. The company was co-founded by Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, former Apple engineers who led the team that developed Apple’s Portrait Mode.

Their expertise in AI has been applied to address the size limitations of smartphone cameras. Unlike traditional AI photo editing post-capture, Glass Imaging leverages neural networks to understand individual camera systems across various smartphone models, enhancing image quality from the moment the shutter is pressed. OpenAI has yet to comment on the acquisition.

The company, known for its ChatGPT language model, is rumored to be exploring hardware ventures, including smartphones, earbuds, and AI companion devices. In 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Apple designer Jony Ive were reportedly collaborating on a startup called io, which OpenAI later purchased for $6.5 billion.