OpenAI Buys Startup Developing Smartphone Camera

OpenAI quietly bought a startup developing higher quality cameras for smartphones in recent months, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company, Glass Imaging, is developing technology that uses artificial intelligence to produce image quality on par with a DSLR camera.

The deal valued Glass Imaging at over $300 million, some of the people said, after it had been valued at around $100 million in a funding round last year.

OpenAI, which is preparing for an initial public offering expected next year, has made several acquisitions recently, including an internet talk show, TBPN, and an open-source developer tools startup.

OpenAI’s exact plans for Glass Imaging are unclear. The developer of ChatGPT has been developing a secretive device with Jony Ive, the former Apple executive who helped design the iPhone. OpenAI hired Ive in 2025 as part of the $6.5 billion acquisition of his startup, io Products. Ive’s role includes developing consumer devices and other projects that are intended to shape the future look and feel of AI.

Glass Imaging was founded in 2019 by two former Apple employees, Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, who previously worked on camera technology at Apple, including developing its portrait-mode feature.

The pair saw the quality of smartphone cameras reaching a plateau and wanted to find a novel way to improve them, using both hardware and software. They hoped to build a new smartphone camera company outside of Apple so that they could rethink the technology without being bound by Apple’s broader business needs around the iPhone.

In a 2022 interview with Computer Vision News, the founders recalled innovation to the camera being “incremental” and the “uphill battle” required to add additional cameras to the smartphone.

Glass Imaging had raised about $30 million in funding from investors including GV, Alphabet’s venture arm, and the investment firm Insight Partners. Its zoom-imaging technology was featured in a new line of phones from Chinese budget-smartphone brand Honor.