OpenAI struck a deal to buy former Apple designer Jony Ive’s (pictured, left) AI devices start-up, a deal CEO Sam Altman (pictured, right) hailed in a video as the beginning of the greatest technology revolution of their lifetimes and which CNBC reported is worth around $6.4 billion.

Ive is taking on “deep creative and design responsibilities across OpenAI and io”, he and Altman stated in a blog.

The well-known former Apple designer and his “creative collective” LoveFrom will remain independent of the broader integration of io and OpenAI.

Ive stated he and former Apple employees Scott Cannon, Tang Tan and Evans Hankey founded io a year ago.

“The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco,” the pair wrote.

CNBC reported the companies agreed an all-equity deal which includes the ChatGPT maker’s current stake in io.

Open AI stated it is paying about $5 billion after accounting for its 23 per cent stake.

“Jony is the deepest thinker of anyone I’ve ever met,” Altman said on the video. “What that leads him to be able to come up with is unmatched.”

Altman said the merger is “formed with the mission of figuring out how to create a family of devices that would let people use AI to create all sorts of wonderful things”.

The news agency reported the deal is OpenAI’s largest to date.

It paid $3 billion last month to buy AI-assisted coding tool Windsurf.

Ive left Apple in 2019 to start LoveFrom after serving as the device company’s chief design officer since 1996, during which he led development of the company’s iPhone and Mac products.