Jony Ive, the former Apple designer and founder of an artificial intelligence company, has expanded his real estate holdings in the Bay Area with a $73 million purchase in Belvedere. According to reports from the San Francisco Standard, Ive acquired four properties in the Marin County city adjacent to Tiburon. This move follows his previous acquisitions of several properties in San Francisco’s Jackson Square neighborhood.
The purchases include three neighboring houses at the end of Golden Gate Avenue and a fourth property on Beach Road, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. The largest home among them features five bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, and four fireplaces, and was sold for $43.5 million. For comparison, typical single-family homes in Belvedere average around $4.3 million.
Entities connected to Apercen Partners, a tax consulting firm based in Palo Alto, were the previous owners of these properties. An anonymous neighbor told reporters that most of the Golden Gate Avenue homes have remained largely unoccupied. One property had been rented out for $15,000 per month to Samuel “Mouli” Cohen, a former tech CEO who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for wire fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion.
In May this year, OpenAI acquired Ive’s AI device startup Io Products for $6.5 billion. Earlier this year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also increased his real estate investments by purchasing additional homes in Russian Hill.
Under OpenAI’s ownership, Io is said to be developing hardware that incorporates ChatGPT technology into what some are calling an “iPhone of AI.” The company has reportedly reached agreements with two Chinese suppliers previously involved with Apple products. Potential new devices may include smart speakers, glasses, digital voice recorders or wearable pins.
Ive’s portfolio now includes properties in Jackson Square and Pacific Heights neighborhoods of San Francisco as well as his recent purchases in Belvedere.
