OpenAI and Jony Ive strike a deal

Author

Noel Moldvai
May 22, 2025

TL;DR. OpenAI is getting physical, and it’s shelling out a pretty penny to do so. I always knew Jony Boy was going to strike it big. Meanwhile, xAI models are now being offered on Azure—a move that comes at a time when the models have faced scrutiny for their less-than-professional tones.

OpenAI is buying iPhone designer Jony Ive’s AI devices startup for $6.4 billion

OpenAI is acquiring io, Jony Ive’s AI hardware startup, in an all-equity deal valued at $6.4 billion. The move brings Ive and his design team closer to OpenAI, aligning hardware and software efforts. It’s OpenAI’s biggest acquisition yet, signaling a serious push to bring AI into the physical world.

xAI’s Grok 3 comes to Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure has added xAI’s Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini models to its AI Foundry, giving enterprise customers direct access. Known for its controversial, uncensored tone, Grok’s Azure debut features a more locked-down version with enterprise-grade data governance, suggesting Musk's AI is getting a corporate facelift.

The environmental impact of LLMs: Here’s how OpenAI, DeepSeek, and Anthropic stack up

A new academic benchmark shows just how much energy AI models consume. OpenAI’s O3 and DeepSeek’s flagship model top the list for energy usage per long response, while Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet leads in eco-efficiency. The study suggests large-scale AI adoption may have an outsized environmental toll, particularly in power and water usage.

The intersection of secondary markets and the private credit boom

The private secondary market is evolving alongside private credit. Secondary markets have created a place for investors to buy and sell their illiquid private credit fund investments. We’ll explore how the rise of private credit affects secondary markets.

Quick Takes

Cheerio! Until next week.
-Noel