OpenAI's first branded hardware is a light-up keyboard?
OpenAI launches its first branded hardware, a light-up keyboard called Codex Micro, in partnership with Work Louder. The limited-run device features OpenAI branding and highlights the company's ambitions to expand beyond software.
The first of many?
While the Codex Micro is at heart simply a slightly modified version of existing third-party hardware, it features prominent OpenAI branding on the box and on the face of the device itself (along with a “You can just build things” tagline referencing OpenAI’s Super Bowl ad). The “limited run” partnership is also being described as accepting orders only “while supplies last,” suggesting that long-term availability is still up in the air (a representative did not respond to questions about total availability as of press time).
Still, the launch of the first OpenAI-branded hardware highlights the company’s ambitions to expand beyond LLM-based software. Those ambitions have been apparent since at least 2023, when OpenAI reportedly started collaborating with former Apple design chief Jony Ive. Last May, OpenAI acquired Ive’s design firm LoveFrom, a partnership reportedly focused on a handheld, screenless device that accepts audio and visual input from around the user.
Handy split-apart design lets you form a sandwich with the keyboard parts as the bread.
Credit: OpenAI / Work Louder