OpenAI acquires smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for over $300 million

OpenAI has acquired Glass Imaging, a smartphone camera technology company, in a deal reported to be worth over $300 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. Glass Imaging, founded in 2019 and headquartered in Los Altos, California, had previously raised approximately $30 million in external funding.

The company was co-founded by Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, former Apple engineers who previously led the team responsible for developing Apple’s Portrait Mode. Glass Imaging’s approach focuses on using neural networks to model individual camera systems—such as those in different smartphone models—so that image quality is enhanced at the moment of capture, rather than through post-processing edits.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the acquisition. The move aligns with broader industry speculation that OpenAI is pursuing hardware initiatives, including smartphones, earbuds, and AI companion devices. In 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and designer Jony Ive announced a device startup called io, which was later acquired by OpenAI for $6.5 billion.