OpenAI’s new AI smart speaker will reportedly sell for between $300 and $400
TechCrunch Lucas Ropek ● Covered by 5 sources
OpenAI's ChatGPT smart speaker will reportedly cost $300 to $400, way above most Amazon speakers. It's shaped like a donut, has moving parts, and won't ship until 2027.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, Lucas Ropek — read the original for the full story.
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More details are leaking out about OpenAI's long-rumored hardware gadget, and the picture getting painted is stranger than expected. According to Bloomberg, the device is donut-shaped, meant to be carried around a home and set down wherever — a nightstand, a kitchen counter, wherever ChatGPT needs to live that day. Sources describe it as built from "high-quality metal" with a "premium look," and, oddly, it apparently has moving parts. Nobody's explained yet what those parts actually do.
Then there's the price. Bloomberg's sources put it somewhere between $300 and $400, which is a steep ask when you consider Amazon's smart home speakers top out around $240 and start as low as $40. OpenAI is positioning this thing as the "physical manifestation" of ChatGPT, and there's an obvious logic to wanting a dedicated object that keeps people talking to the assistant throughout the day. But smart speakers as a category have never been a reliable moneymaker, and pricing yours well above the competition doesn't make that problem easier.
The hardware is being built alongside LoveFrom, the design studio started by Jony Ive, the designer behind some of Apple's most recognizable products. That pedigree probably explains the premium materials talk. Bloomberg reports a 2027 release window, so there's still plenty of time for specs, pricing, and that mysterious moving-parts detail to shift.
And OpenAI's hardware ambitions already have a legal cloud hanging over them. Apple is suing the company, alleging trade secret theft, which OpenAI denies. Whatever the merits of that case, it's a reminder that OpenAI is trying to walk into a market where the incumbents don't just compete on shelf space — they litigate.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
A donut-shaped speaker with unexplained moving parts, priced above Amazon's entire lineup, is a lot to ask people to trust sight unseen. Smart speakers already struggled to turn a profit when they were cheap and boring; charging more for one that's neither of those things feels like a bet on brand loyalty rather than on the product itself. If the moving parts turn out to be gimmicky, this could end up being remembered as the moment OpenAI's hardware ambitions got ahead of its hardware sense.
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