OpenAI has acquired Glass Imaging, a smartphone camera technology company, in a deal valued at over $300 million, according to a September 2026 report from The Wall Street Journal. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Glass Imaging was founded in 2019 and is based in Los Altos, California. The company had raised approximately $30 million in funding from investors prior to the acquisition.
The startup was co-founded by Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, two former Apple engineers who previously led the team behind Apple’s Portrait Mode feature. At Glass Imaging, the pair applied that experience to a different problem: using AI to improve smartphone camera output within the physical constraints of small camera hardware. Rather than applying AI to edit photos after they are taken, Glass Imaging trains neural networks on individual camera systems — accounting for differences across smartphone models — to produce better images at the moment of capture.
The acquisition fits into a broader pattern of hardware ambitions at OpenAI. The company is reported to be working on its own devices, including smartphones, earbuds, and AI companion hardware. In 2025, OpenAI purchased io, a device startup co-founded by CEO Sam Altman and Apple designer Jony Ive, for $6.5 billion. The Glass Imaging deal may suggest that camera capability could be a component of OpenAI’s hardware efforts, though the company has not confirmed specific plans.
Source: TechCrunch