OpenAI’s first hardware product now has a shape, a price range and a legal counterattack. A Bloomberg report published on August 6, 2026, revealed that the company’s long-teased AI device will be a doughnut-shaped smart speaker roughly the size of a hockey puck, priced between $300 and $400. The same day, OpenAI filed a motion asking a federal judge to dismiss Apple’s trade secret lawsuit entirely.
That timing is not a coincidence. Here is what the latest leak reveals about the device, why the Apple fight just escalated, and what OpenAI is really betting on.
What the Bloomberg Leak Reveals
The device is designed to be carried in one hand. It has no screen. Instead, it uses built-in speaker grilles and an array of microphones for voice conversations with ChatGPT, a camera system and sensors that observe the user’s environment, and moving mechanical parts that give the speaker what Bloomberg describes as “personality.”
Lights indicate when it is listening. Moving components show when it is responding. The idea is to make the speaker feel less like a static gadget and more like something that is aware of its surroundings.
It runs on a battery, so users can move it from room to room without needing a power cord. The body uses premium metal materials. OpenAI has discussed internal pricing between $300 and $400 per unit.
Former Apple design chief Jony Ive is leading the device’s design. OpenAI acquired Ive’s startup, io Products, in 2025 for $6.5 billion in stock. The deal brought several former Apple hardware designers into OpenAI’s ranks, including Evans Hankey, Apple’s former head of industrial design, and Tang Tan, who previously led iPhone and Apple Watch product design.
The device will use GPT-Live-1, OpenAI’s full-duplex voice model launched on July 8, 2026. Unlike traditional voice assistants that wait for a user to finish speaking before responding, GPT-Live-1 can listen and speak at the same time. It delegates complex reasoning tasks to GPT-5.5 running in the background while maintaining conversational flow.
The Apple Lawsuit Just Got More Complicated
On July 10, 2026, Apple filed a federal lawsuit in Northern California accusing OpenAI of orchestrating a campaign to steal trade secrets from current and former Apple employees. The suit named OpenAI, io Products, hardware chief Tang Tan and former Apple engineer Chang Liu as defendants.
Apple’s allegations were specific. The iPhone maker claimed OpenAI encouraged employees to share confidential information about unreleased hardware products, including technical specifications and supplier relationships. One allegation described a former Apple employee discovering they could still access internal network storage after leaving. Apple also claimed OpenAI misled a manufacturing partner into developing a proprietary metal finishing technique that Apple had invented.
On August 6 the same day Bloomberg published the device details OpenAI fired back. The company filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, calling Apple’s allegations “meritless.” OpenAI’s lawyers argued that its hardware chief acted within standard industry recruiting practices and that the employee accused of theft was actually helping a former colleague at Apple.
OpenAI stated in the filing that it is “building something entirely new and different from anything at Apple.”
Bloomberg’s report reinforced that framing. Sources told the outlet that Apple has nothing comparable to the portable speaker in its current or planned product lineup. Whether that claim holds up in court remains to be seen. Apple is working on a smart home hub with a 7-inch display and a separate tabletop robot project with a motorized arm, neither of which resembles a portable puck-shaped speaker.
How It Compares to What Already Exists
The AI smart speaker category is not empty. Google launched its new Home Speaker in June 2026 at $99, the first smart speaker the company designed specifically for its Gemini AI platform. Reviews praised its improved audio quality and more natural conversations, but noted software bugs and the fact that the best Gemini features require a paid subscription.
Amazon’s Echo devices have defined the category for a decade, but they remain primarily voice-command tools rather than conversational AI platforms. Apple’s HomePod mini retails for $99 but requires a power cord and relies on Siri, which is still waiting for its long-promised AI overhaul.
OpenAI’s speaker enters this market at three to four times the price of Google’s and Apple’s current offerings. The bet is that GPT-Live-1’s full-duplex voice interaction, combined with a camera that reads the room and a personality that adapts over time, will justify the premium.
That is a big ask. Smart speakers have historically been a low-margin, low-cost category. As Jitesh Ubrani, an IDC research manager, told Bloomberg in an earlier report, most consumers would resist paying over $300 for a speaker regardless of its intelligence.
So What Is OpenAI Actually Betting On?
The speaker is not just a speaker. It is a physical foothold.
OpenAI does not control the phone, the watch or the laptop that users reach for every day. ChatGPT runs as a guest app on platforms owned by Apple, Google and Microsoft. Those companies can restrict access, change integration terms or build their own competing voice experiences at any time. Apple already paused its ChatGPT integration in Siri amid the lawsuit.
A standalone device changes that equation. If OpenAI can put a ChatGPT-powered object in users’ homes one that remembers their habits, reads their environment and talks like a real person it stops being a software company that rents shelf space on other people’s hardware.
That is also why OpenAI reportedly has about five different physical products in development, including smart glasses expected in 2028. The speaker is just the entry point.
But the financial math is brutal. OpenAI reported losses of $38.5 billion in 2025 according to leaked financial documents, and the company itself has said profitability is unlikely before 2030. Adding a hardware supply chain with premium materials and a battery-powered design will add costs, not reduce them. The $300-to-$400 price point likely means OpenAI is subsidizing each unit, betting on long-term engagement rather than per-device margins.
The question is not whether the device will work. The question is whether enough people will pay three times the price of a Google Home Speaker for a hockey-puck AI companion when their phone already runs ChatGPT for free.
What Comes Next
OpenAI plans to unveil the device publicly later in 2026, with consumer shipments starting no earlier than February 2027. The Apple lawsuit remains unresolved, with Apple seeking an injunction that could delay or complicate the launch if granted.
The motion to dismiss will be the next legal milestone. If the judge sides with OpenAI, the lawsuit could collapse before the device ships. If Apple’s injunction request succeeds, OpenAI’s 2027 timeline could slip further.
Either way, the doughnut-shaped puck is now the most concrete evidence that OpenAI’s hardware ambitions are real. Whether it becomes the next Echo or the next Humane Pin depends on whether GPT-Live-1’s conversational ability is enough to justify a device that deliberately left out a screen.
FAQs
What is OpenAI’s new device?
OpenAI’s first hardware product is a portable, doughnut-shaped smart speaker roughly the size of a hockey puck. It has no display and features a camera, sensors, microphones, speaker grilles and moving mechanical parts. It is designed to run ChatGPT through voice interaction powered by GPT-Live-1.
How much will the OpenAI speaker cost?
OpenAI has discussed pricing between $300 and $400 per unit, according to Bloomberg’s August 6, 2026 report. Earlier reports from February 2026 cited a $200-to-$300 range, so the price appears to have moved upward as the design has been finalized.
When will the OpenAI device launch?
Consumer shipments are expected no earlier than February 2027. OpenAI hopes to publicly unveil the device sometime in late 2026.
Who is designing the OpenAI speaker?
Former Apple design chief Jony Ive is leading the design. OpenAI acquired Ive’s hardware startup, io Products, in 2025 for $6.5 billion. The team includes several former Apple hardware executives.
Why is Apple suing OpenAI over this device?
Apple filed a trade secret lawsuit on July 10, 2026, accusing OpenAI and several former Apple employees of stealing confidential information about unreleased hardware products. OpenAI filed a motion to dismiss on August 6, 2026, calling the allegations meritless.
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