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OpenAI Acquires Smartphone Camera Startup Glass Imaging in Deal Valued Above $300 Million
OpenAI has bought Glass Imaging, a Los Altos, California-based company that uses AI to push past the physical limits of smartphone camera hardware. The reported deal value exceeds $300 million.
Glass Imaging was founded in 2019 and had raised roughly $30 million from investors before the acquisition, according to the report. The company is led by Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, both former Apple engineers who earlier headed the team behind the iPhone maker's Portrait Mode feature.
That imaging pedigree underpins the work Glass Imaging now does: applying AI to compensate for the size constraints of camera modules packed into slim handsets, where lens and sensor dimensions are tightly limited.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the transaction.
The purchase lands as the ChatGPT developer is widely reported to be preparing its own consumer hardware, with smartphones, earbuds and AI companion devices among the product categories linked to the company.
OpenAI has already made a large hardware bet. In 2025, chief executive Sam Altman and former Apple designer Jony Ive disclosed they had been collaborating on a device venture called io, and OpenAI acquired Ive's company for $6.5 billion.