OpenAI's first consumer hardware product will be a screenless, battery-powered smart speaker shaped like a doughnut and roughly the size of a hockey puck, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the work remains confidential.

Pricing has been discussed at $300 to $400 per unit, placing it well above most smart speakers on the market — Amazon's Echo and Google's Nest lines typically retail for under $200 — and below the cost of a standard iPhone. Availability is slated for 2027, with an unveiling targeted for sometime this year.

The device is designed to be portable — carried around the home in one hand — and engineered to function in different positions, whether held or resting on a surface. It will feature speaker grilles and built-in microphones for voice-based conversation, indicator lights that signal when it is actively listening, and a camera and sensors that relay environmental data back to the AI system.

In an effort to make the product feel more lifelike than competing stationary smart speakers — a category currently dominated by Amazon and Google that has seen limited consumer excitement in recent years — sections of the circular casing will move autonomously to indicate when the device is processing or responding. OpenAI is positioning the product as an AI-native computer that users will rely on throughout the day, functioning similarly to ChatGPT's voice mode but powered by more advanced models. The product enters a hardware landscape where standalone AI devices from other companies, including the Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1, have struggled to gain traction with consumers.

The hardware was designed in collaboration with Jony Ive's LoveFrom studio and will incorporate premium materials, including high-quality metal. OpenAI acquired Ive's device startup, io, for $6.4 billion in May 2025. Separately, Decrypt reported in April that OpenAI is co-developing a smartphone chip with Qualcomm and MediaTek.

Apple's Lawsuit

The device details emerge amid ongoing legal action. Apple sued OpenAI in July in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California over the alleged misappropriation of hardware trade secrets. The complaint names former Apple engineer Chang Liu, former design executive Tang Yew Tan, and io Products.

Apple's filing references a metal finishing technique that it claims OpenAI asked a longtime Apple supplier to develop for an upcoming product. According to Bloomberg, it remains unclear whether that technique pertains to the speaker, a different device, or a concept that has since been scrapped.

OpenAI has firmly denied the allegations. In a blog post on Monday, the company described the lawsuit as "careless, aggressive and oddly personal," asserted that Apple had confused two employees with similar surnames, and published emails and text messages it says undermine the claims. OpenAI filed a motion to dismiss late Wednesday.

Apple has also requested a preliminary injunction that could restrict OpenAI's activities while the case proceeds, potentially complicating the product launch. The litigation adds tension to a relationship in which the two companies had recently moved closer: OpenAI's ChatGPT was integrated into Apple's Apple Intelligence platform as a core third-party feature in 2025. Despite the legal uncertainty, OpenAI is pressing ahead internally and has declined to comment on its product plans to Bloomberg.

Public Reception

OpenAI's vision for AI in the home has drawn pushback online. CEO Sam Altman tweeted last week that a "cool use case" for its ChatGPT Work agent would be connecting family calendars to automatically generate a school-run podcast about one child's soccer game and another child's birthday. Several critical replies garnered more likes than the original post, Fortune reported, with users objecting to software substituting for genuine family conversation.