Back in December, Swedish tech entrepreneur Sebastian Siemiatkowski — the guy behind Klarna, the infamous burrito financing app — directed his family investment company to dump billion into AI startups.The investment made up a "mini portfolio" of four "prominent US-based AI companies," a press release said at the time. Those were software engineer startup Anysphere, generative AI language outfit Speak, bioresearch venture Chai Discovery — and a fourth, anonymous company.On its face, there's nothing out of the ordinary about that. AI startups nabbed almost half of all venture capitalist funds raised last year, according to Reuters, amounting to about billion.Anonymous startups are likewise pretty common, a tactic known as "stealth mode" made by founders who want to protect intellectual property or avoid media scrutiny until they're ready to announce their business.However, this "mini portfolio" earmarked a whopping 70 percent of its investment funds to the anonymous firm, or about billion. All anyone knew was that this was a "seed investment" toward the launch of a "new AI hardware product."Six months later, a post by Siemiatkowski is clearing some things up: the anonymous company was "io," another secret startup founded in 2024 by Jony Ive.Ive is the superstar British-American designer behind iconic Apple products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and Apple Watch, and even some not-so-renowned ones, like that weird hockey puck mouse, and a 90s chic toilet.But Ive isn't why it's weird.A day before Siemiatkowski's post, tech billionaire Sam Altman announced that OpenAI had acquired io in a bizarre dispatch that reads more like a wedding website than a corporate press release. OpenAI paid billion for io — meaning the Klarna King's secret investment in a little anonymous startup was now a public partnership with the biggest AI startup on the planet.Even stranger are some now-deleted posts by former Google designer Luke Wroblewski, who now spends his days as a director at Sutter Hill Ventures, a close-lipped titan in the tech funding space."Congrats to io on the B acquisition by OpenAI today," Wroblewski wrote, according to TechCrunch. "Happy to have been investors in this one."TC managed to nab a comment from Wroblewski's now-deleted post on X-formerly-Twitter, which suggests that Sutter Hill "was the second largest investor in 'io,'" an idea that Bloomberg seems to support.The question is, why delete? Is there some reason that Sutter Hill isn't actually happy to be have been investors? Is someone else involved in the deal trying to keep a lid on where the money's coming from? And most strikingly, why the silence? Sutter had nothing to tell TC after it reached out to ask, giving an unmistakably weird aura to the rollout.The drama comes as netizens and news media alike are abuzz with speculation about Sam Altman's secretive "AI companion" device, which he began teasing back in 2023.So far, Altman has told us the device will be "unobtrusive," "pocket sized," and "fully aware" of everything in its users' lives. It's probably not smart glasses, according to the Verge.Whatever it is, Sam Altman has an ambitious plan to roll out 100 million of them by 2026. Time will tell if it's worth all the secrecy and bluster — or if it turns out to be another Humane AI pin.Share This Article #something #weird #going #with #investors

Hours after Sam Altman and Jony Ive announced on Wednesday that OpenAI was buying Ive’s company, io, in an all-stock transaction valued at billion, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski posted a surprising message on X.  Siemiatkowski’s family investment office, Flat Capital, had bought shares in io six months earlier, he said. Since this is an all-stock deal, those io shares will be converted into shares in the for-profit arm of OpenAI. “Excited that @FlatCapital was an investor in io and that we will now receive even more shares in OpenAI at a hefty return for an investment we did some 6 months ago,” Siemiatkowski tweeted.  The post generated so much interest that his investment firm issued a public statement confirming that io was the mystery, unnamed company it backed when it announced its four investments in a “mini-portfolio” of U.S. AI companies. Flat Capital disclosed that it spent 34 million SEK on io, which converts to about million. Then came another surprising tweet from former Googler and designer Luke Wroblewski, who now works as a managing director at the secretive Silicon Valley VC powerhouse firm Sutter Hill Ventures.  In a since-deleted tweet and LinkedIn post, Wroblewski wrote, “congrats to io on the B acquisition by OpenAI today. happy to have been investors in this one.” According to some who saw additional now-deleted tweets about Sutter’s investment, the firm may have been the second largest investor in io. TechCrunch couldn’t confirm that, though. Sutter didn’t respond to our request for comment, and Wroblewski deleted his posts after we reached out.  Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW The biggest investor in io was OpenAI itself, with a 23% stake, sources told Bloomberg, adding that this stake was valued at around billion. That means OpenAI paid about billion in stock for the remaining shares. Other io backers, Bloomberg reported, included Laurene Powell Jobs’ firm Emerson Collective, Thrive Capital, Maverick Ventures, SV Angel, and the OpenAI Fund. As we previously reported, that fund isn’t backed with the AI model maker’s money but by outside investors. Despite the deleted tweets, Bloomberg also confirmed Sutter Hill Ventures was an investor. #klarna #ceo #sutter #hill #take