OpenAI buys former Apple engineers' AI camera startup valued at over $300 million: reports

OpenAI has reportedly acquired Glass Imaging, a company developing technology that uses AI to produce smartphone image quality comparable to professional-grade cameras.

The deal values Glass Imaging at over $300 million, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter, more than triple its valuation of around $100 million following a funding round last year. The California-based firm had previously raised around $30 million, according to TechCrunch, from investors including GV, Alphabet's venture arm, and Insight Partners.

The reported move follows several acquisitions by OpenAI recently as it gears up for a potential initial public offering next year, including tech talk show TBPN and open-source Python developer tools startup Astral.

While the plans for Glass Imaging remain unclear, the ChatGPT developer is known to have been developing an AI companion device with former Apple designer Jony Ive, following the $6.5 billion acquisition of his startup, io Products, in 2025.

Glass Imaging was founded in 2019 by Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, who both previously worked on camera technology at Apple.

Slowdown

Over the weekend, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joined other frontier AI companies in calling for a deliberate slowdown in the pace of development so that safety and monitoring measures can catch up, arguing that it will be "well worth the cost."

"Every frontier lab must deliver on this, and there is no reason any of us should come to work if we cannot," Altman said.