OpenAI Jony Ive Deal Notches New Record for Growing Startup M&A

Venture-backed startups are staying private for longer — and growing so much bigger — that they’re starting to be major acquirers of other startups, using their highly valued stock as currency.

OpenAI set a new record for a venture-backed acquisition by a private buyer this week when it agreed to buy famous hardware designer Jony Ive’s company, io, for $6.5 billion, according to data provider CB Insights.

It’s the seventh billion-dollar sale of one private startup to another in the past year alone, CB Insights found, a record pace. Just last week, Databricks announced that it’s buying database business Neon for ...