OpenAI is reportedly planning to charge between $300 and $400 for its first hardware product, a ring-shaped speaker roughly the size of a hockey puck. That price, if it holds, would make it one of the most expensive smart speakers ever sold to consumers. For context, Apple’s HomePod sits at $299 and Amazon’s top-tier Echo Studio comes in at $199. OpenAI is pricing itself above both before anyone has even seen the thing in person.
According to Engadget, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who is better known for tracking Apple’s product pipeline, has been filing detailed reports on this OpenAI hardware project over the past month. His latest report adds new details to what we know about the device’s physical design and feature set. It’s battery-powered and portable, meaning users can carry it around rather than leaving it plugged in like a traditional smart speaker. It apparently has components that can move independently, which sounds like an attempt to give the product some sense of presence or personality. There’s no screen, but there is a camera and environmental sensors built in.
The design work comes out of io, the startup founded by Jony Ive that OpenAI acquired for $6.5 billion. That acquisition was OpenAI’s clearest signal yet that it wants a physical product in people’s homes, not just an API or a chat interface. Ive’s involvement explains the focus on form factor and aesthetics, but it also explains the price ambition. Apple products command premium prices partly because of Ive’s design legacy. OpenAI seems to be betting that association carries weight here too.
Whether consumers agree is a different question. Smart speaker adoption has largely been driven by low price points. Amazon practically gave away early Echo devices to get Alexa into homes. Google did similar things with Nest Mini. The idea that a brand new hardware category from a company with no consumer device track record can open at $300 to $400 is a real risk. OpenAI’s name carries weight in tech circles, but mass market hardware is a different game.
The device is expected to launch in 2027, so there’s still time to adjust. The fact that Gurman is reporting on pricing this early suggests either that internal plans are fairly advanced, or that someone inside OpenAI wants to see how the market reacts before committing. If the response to a $400 price tag is skepticism, that feedback loop could push the number down before any official announcement.
What makes this worth watching isn’t just the device itself. It’s what it signals about where OpenAI thinks the AI industry is heading. Text interfaces and API access are one layer of the business. A physical, ambient AI product that sits in your home or travels with you is a different layer entirely, and a much harder one to build and sell. The key specs worth noting at this stage include:
- Ring-shaped form factor, roughly hockey puck-sized
- Battery-powered and portable
- Motorized or movable internal components
- Camera system and environmental sensors
- No screen
- Estimated retail price of $300 to $400
- Expected launch in 2027
So the hardware push is real, the price ambitions are high, and the pressure to justify that price will be significant. OpenAI has the brand recognition and the backing. But smart speakers are a graveyard of ambitious products that consumers simply didn’t buy. This one will need to do something meaningfully different to earn that price tag.
