OpenAI’s $300 million Glass Imaging deal signals bigger push into consumer hardware

OpenAI has acquired smartphone camera startup Glass Imaging in a deal worth more than $300 million. Founded by former Apple engineers, Glass Imaging uses AI and neural networks to improve smartphone camera and zoom performance.

OpenAI has acquired smartphone camera technology company Glass Imaging in a deal valued at more than $300 million, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The acquisition adds another hardware-driven company to OpenAI's expanding list of businesses as it continues to experiment with new consumer hardware.

Glass Imaging was established in 2019 and is headquartered in Los Altos, California, with a reported $30 million in total investment. OpenAI has not yet officially revealed plans for using Glass Imaging's technology.

Former Apple engineers founded Glass Imaging

Founded by Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, two former Apple engineers who also worked on camera technology at the company. The two were allegedly working on Apple's Portrait Mode feature for the startup.

Glass Imaging's main business is enhancing photos captured by smartphones, using a combination of camera hardware, software, and artificial intelligence. Its technology is based on neural networks trained for each camera system to enhance images as they are taken, not just by AI editing after the picture is shot.

Honor has used startup's camera technology

The company has also been involved in a Zoom imaging device that could overcome the physical constraints of the smartphone camera. The company's approach is to provide the image quality users could expect from a larger dedicated camera.

Glass Imaging’s technology has already been used in smartphones from the Chinese manufacturer Honor. The founders spoke to Computer Vision News in an interview in 2022 about the difficulties involved in enhancing smartphone cameras while keeping in mind the restricted room inside the phones today.

Pragya Singha Roy