Opal Electronics turns from webcams to AI audio with OpenAI cash
WIRED reports OpenAI put $40 million into Opal, which is now preparing an AI audio device rather than another phone replacement.
By Ryan Merket ·
Why it matters
Opal Electronics is a test of whether AI hardware can work as careful consumer electronics, not as a phone-killing moonshot backed by a large model lab.
Opal Electronics is using a reported $40 million Series B from OpenAI (@OpenAI) to move beyond the webcams that made its name and ship an AI-powered audio device, WIRED reported.
The San Francisco hardware maker, formerly Opal Camera, is not trying to present itself as another all-purpose AI gadget company. On its own homepage, Opal Electronics says it is building "electronics for the few who demand a different look, feel, and function in every product," and describes its early history as a small team with a factory that built and sold webcams. That founder-level discipline—stay small, make opinionated hardware, retire old products when the next line is ready—is now being tested in a market where AI devices have mostly overpromised.
The OpenAI money comes with strategic ambiguity
WIRED reports that OpenAI's $40 million Series B closed in the first quarter of 2025 and that Opal Electronics is now valued at around $275 million, citing a source close to the deal. The same report names Samsung, Peter Thiel, Seven Seven Six, and Marques Brownlee among Opal Electronics' other investors.
Those figures are not company-confirmed. Opal Electronics' own site says only that it has sold stock to an AI lab, a multinational electronics company, and capital institutions while retaining full creative control. WIRED reports that OpenAI is now Opal Electronics' largest shareholder, but that OpenAI does not have rights to Opal Electronics' IP or designs and that Opal Electronics can work with any AI lab.
That distinction matters because OpenAI already has a separate hardware track. The AI lab has been working with Jony Ive and LoveFrom on personal devices that would run OpenAI software, with The Information reporting a first product could resemble a smart speaker. Opal Electronics, by contrast, appears to be a design-led outside bet: close enough to OpenAI to get capital and early testers, but not presented as OpenAI's in-house hardware arm.
Altman was a customer before OpenAI became an investor
WIRED reports that Sam Altman (@sam) was an early customer and fan of Opal Electronics' C1 webcam. In 2022, according to WIRED, an OpenAI team visited Opal Electronics to discuss whether Whisper, OpenAI's voice transcription model, could run locally on Opal cameras for live Zoom subtitles. At the end of that meeting, WIRED reports, OpenAI showed the Opal Electronics team a preview of ChatGPT.
That anecdote helps explain why Opal Electronics is moving toward audio first. WIRED says the new device has been in development for several years and is being tested by Altman, OpenAI researchers, and executives at xAI, Thinking Machines, and Anthropic. The form factor is still undisclosed. WIRED's source said it is a familiar product category and not designed to compete with the iPhone.
Opal Electronics is expected to launch the audio product in the next three to four months, according to WIRED. WIRED also reports that the device will launch with a specific AI lab partner, while Opal Electronics is in talks with OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI and wants users to be able to switch models.
Opal is leaving the webcam-only identity behind
Opal Electronics' old business was narrow but real. WIRED reports Opal Electronics had sold more than 50,000 webcams by 2023, after launching its first product with five people and growing to 12 by its second. Opal Electronics manufactures in Taiwan, according to WIRED.
Now Opal Electronics says its cameras are old and will soon leave the shelf, while support will continue for years. WIRED reports Opal Electronics plans to release 3D drawings, manufacturing plans, circuit board schematics, and software into the public domain when products reach end of life so owners can keep using them.
The wager is that a small hardware team can build AI electronics with stronger taste and fewer category promises than the first wave of LLM gadgets. Opal Electronics says more products are on the way; WIRED reports two additional releases are planned in the next 12 months. The hard part will be proving the audio device is more than a showcase for a model switcher and a famous cap table.