OpenAI has bought Glass Imaging, the smartphone camera maker founded by the engineers behind Apple’s Portrait Mode, in a deal worth over $300 million, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The acquisition gives the AI lab a foothold in camera hardware at a moment when it is rumored to be building its own devices.
Glass Imaging was founded in 2019 by Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, both former Apple engineers who led the team that developed Apple’s Portrait Mode. The company is based in Los Altos, California, and had previously raised about $30 million in funding from investors. The deal value puts OpenAI’s purchase in the same neighborhood as its earlier move to buy Jony Ive’s company for $6.5 billion in 2025.
Deal Details
The $300 million price tag comes from The Wall Street Journal’s report. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Journal’s reporting is the basis for everything below.
The acquisition brings together two strands of Silicon Valley history. Attar and Bishop were the engineers behind Apple’s Portrait Mode. Now those same engineers have spent years building a company whose stated goal is to make AI work inside the camera itself, not after the shot is taken.
What Glass Imaging Actually Does
Glass Imaging’s core pitch is that AI belongs inside the camera, not outside it. The company uses neural networks to understand how each camera system behaves. It learns about the different sensors, lenses and processing pipelines found across smartphone models. Then it applies that knowledge the instant the shutter button is pressed.
The distinction matters. Most AI photography today works as a second pass: take the picture, then let software improve it. Glass Imaging wants the improvement to happen while the picture is being made. That requires the camera itself to carry intelligence.
The company’s founders describe the approach as a way to overcome the physical size constraints of smartphone cameras. A bigger lens or sensor is rarely possible in a thin phone. So the software tries to do some of the work that hardware can’t.
The Attar-Bishop Background
Attar and Bishop are the public face of Glass Imaging. Their resume is the reason the company existed at all. They built Apple’s Portrait Mode, which became one of the defining features of the iPhone’s camera system.
After leaving Apple, they started Glass Imaging to apply that same thinking to a broader range of camera problems. The company’s work has centered on computational photography.
Why OpenAI Is Buying Cameras
OpenAI is rumored to be working on its own hardware. The whispers include smartphones, earbuds and AI companion devices. None of that has been confirmed. But the company has shown a pattern of acquiring teams with specific expertise rather than building everything from scratch.
The Glass Imaging deal fits that pattern. OpenAI gets a team that knows how cameras actually work, plus a working model of AI integrated into the capture process. That combination is valuable whether OpenAI builds phones or simply wants to push the boundaries of what cameras can do.
The Ivie Comparison
The $300 million deal is not OpenAI’s first big hardware purchase. In 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and famed Apple designer Jony Ive revealed that they had been working together on a device startup called io. OpenAI then bought Ive’s company for $6.5 billion.
That comparison is the fun part. OpenAI has now paid over $6 billion for two separate hardware bets within a few years. The first was a designer known for the look of Apple products. The second is a pair of engineers known for a feature that changed how phones took pictures.
The difference between the two deals is instructive. Ive brought design language and industrial experience. Attar and Bishop bring a specific technical capability — the ability to make AI work inside the camera. OpenAI has now covered both bases.
What This Means for AI Photography
The deal is notable for what it represents. OpenAI is no longer just an AI lab. It is becoming a hardware company. The question now is what shape that hardware will take.
“We’re working on a device startup called io.”
The answer may come sooner than expected.
The Bottom Line
OpenAI buying Glass Imaging is a smart move. The company gets a team with a proven track record, a working technology and a clear path forward. The deal also fits a pattern of OpenAI acquiring specialized talent rather than generic engineering talent.
The acquisition is notable for what it represents. OpenAI is no longer just an AI lab. It is becoming a hardware company. The question now is what shape that hardware will take.
The answer may come sooner than expected.
See the a run of 23 images at TechCrunch.
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