With its multibillion-dollar purchase of Apple design legend Jony Ive's startup, OpenAI is doubling down on a bet that the AI revolution will birth a new generation of novel consumer devices, Axios' Ina Fried writes.

• Why it matters: Just as the web first came to us on the personal computer and the cloud enabled the rise of the smartphone, OpenAI's gamble is that AI's role as Silicon Valley's new platform will demand a different kind of hardware.

The company's also betting that Ive, who played a key role in designing the iPhone and other iconic Apple products, is the person to build it.

• In an announcement video, Ive tells OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that we're still using "decades-old" products, meaning PCs and smartphones, to connect with the "unimaginable technology" of today's AI.

🖼️ The big picture: Altman loves a big bet, and this one is huge: billions in stock in exchange for Ive's talents and those of the rest of the team, which includes three other veteran Apple design leaders.

• Ive famously spent much of his career at Apple as Steve Jobs' creative partner.
• OpenAI's video presents the new Ive-Altman pairing as the natural successor to that team — with Sam as the new Steve and Apple left behind as a peddler of "legacy products."

Between the lines: Altman has long pursued a strategy of shaping AI through devices as well as software.

• He was an early investor in Humane, whose AI pin flopped, and is a co-founder of World, which is deploying eyeball scanning orbs to verify human identity in a bot-filled world.

Ive and Altman announced last year that they were collaborating on a hardware side project but have been tight-lipped about what their startup, named io, is working on. Altman told Axios in an onstage interview last year that it wouldn't be a smartphone.

• The company, which is what OpenAI is acquiring, may be pursuing "headphones and other devices with cameras," according to The Wall Street Journal.
• Ive's design firm, LoveFrom, will remain independent and continue working on some other projects.

🔭 Zoom out: Other Big Tech companies have also been investing in a post-smartphone hardware future.

• While investor interest in the metaverse has cooled, there's still a competitive market in VR headsets and a growing field of smart glasses as a delivery device for AI services.
• Meta has its Ray-Ban smart glasses. Google demonstrated its own prototype glasses, which include a small display. And Apple is reportedly working on augmented-reality glasses, too.

Share this story.

Two Israeli Embassy staff were fatally shot at close range while leaving a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C., Axios' Rebecca Falconer and Barak Ravid write.

The big picture: The suspect chanted "free Palestine" while being taken into custody, D.C. police chief Pamela Smith said at a briefing.

• The victims were identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Officials said Lischinsky planned to propose to Milgrim next week in Jerusalem.
• "Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence," FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said on X. Police named the suspect as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago.

The American Jewish Committee was hosting its annual Young Diplomats Reception at the museum.

• The event "brings together Jewish young professionals ... and the D.C. diplomatic community for an evening dedicated to fostering unity and celebrating Jewish heritage," per a post by the Jewish advocacy group advertising the event.

"I have been worried for the past few months that something like this would happen and it did," Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said during a press conference this morning.

• President Trump posted to Truth Social: "These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA."

Keep reading.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told me onstage last night he's convinced of two things:

• The U.S. will make a long list of trade deals by mid-summer.
• The tariffs forcing those deals won't raise retail prices.

Why it matters: Investors, business leaders and consumers are praying he's right, Axios' Ben Berkowitz notes.

🔎 Zoom in: Lutnick, a billionaire Wall Street CEO before entering government, was nothing but optimistic at our Building the Future event in D.C.

• Asked how many of America's 18 key trading partners would have a deal by the time a tariff pause ends July 8, he said: "I think most countries, we'll have an idea of what we want to do with them."

The big picture: Lutnick is at the forefront of the Trump administration's sweeping efforts to rewrite the rules of global trade, a campaign that has disrupted the U.S. and international economies and created deep uncertainty for businesses and consumers.

• The president's argument: The U.S. has been treated unfairly by the world for decades, at the cost of valuable American jobs — a situation that can only be fixed by a more aggressive approach.

👓 Between the lines: Over the last few days, the single most important question about the tariffs has been what they'll do to the American consumer.

• Lutnick recently decried "silly arguments" that tariffs raise prices. A few days later, Walmart said they'd do exactly that, and a number of other companies have hinted at the same since.
• The commerce secretary didn't flinch last night, though. "The president has to stand strong, and you can't fix things in a day, and that's still going, but I would expect that prices in America will be unaffected."

Share this story ... Watch the interview.

Unusually warm temperatures are expected to hit the U.S. this summer, according to a recently released NOAA climate outlook.

• Every state in the Lower 48 is projected to be hotter than average, with the odds highest over Utah and southwestern Texas.

The "gold card" website allowing people to buy U.S. permanent residency for $5 million will launch within a week, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told me last night.

• Why it matters: President Trump has suggested the U.S. could sell 1 million of the cards — enough to retire the national debt.

Lutnick said trumpcard.gov would initially allow people to register their interest in buying one of the cards.

• "Everyone I meet who's not an American is going to want to buy the card if they have the fiscal capacity," he said.

🔭 Zoom out: Trump announced the gold card in late February, offering permanent U.S. residency to anyone who shelled out the $5 million fee.

• It was meant to replace the EB-5 investor visa, which gives out green cards in return for a much smaller investment in the U.S. economy.

Share this story.

Israel is making preparations to swiftly strike Iran's nuclear facilities if negotiations between the U.S. and Iran collapse, two Israeli sources with knowledge of the discussions tell Axios' Barak Ravid.

• Why it matters: The Israeli intelligence community has shifted just in the past few days from believing a nuclear deal was close to thinking talks could soon break down, the sources say.

One source said the Israeli military thinks its operational window to conduct a successful strike could close soon, so Israel will have to move fast if talks fail. The source declined to say why the military believes a strike would be less effective later.

• "Bibi is waiting for the nuclear talks to collapse and for the moment Trump will be disappointed about the negotiations and open to giving him the go-ahead," an Israeli source added, using a nickname for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Friction point: A U.S. official told Axios the Trump administration is concerned Netanyahu might make his move even without a green light from President Trump.

• Keep reading.

Americans are more likely to support unions than big companies by the widest margin in 60 years, Axios' Emily Peck writes from new data published by the liberal Economic Policy Institute.

• Why it matters: The approval switcheroo helps explain, in part, why President Trump and the Republican Party have been courting labor unions in recent years.

For the past 60 years, American National Election Studies has asked Americans to rate their feelings toward labor unions and big business.

• Up until 2012, sentiment moved together. But things started to change during the recovery from the global financial crisis.
• After the pandemic, public support for labor unions and workers increased even more.

Get Axios Markets.

The Chicago suburb where Pope Leo XIV grew up plans to purchase his childhood home to turn into a local landmark — even if it has to take it using eminent domain, the N.Y. Times reports.

• Why it matters: The three-bedroom house was put up for auction last week after the home's connection to the pope became clear.

The current owner bought the home in 2024 for $66,000 with a plan to renovate and flip it.

• It had been listed for $199,900 before it was pulled from the market when a flood of offers came in immediately after the conclave.

Keep reading (gift link).