Today Palmer Luckey was spotted in a staged tweet promoting Dime, the mysterious silver headset:
Zooming in, you can clearly see the device:
This is now at least the fourth marketing stunt from Dime, the mysterious silver headset that OpenAI has guaranteed us it is not affiliated with.
Or is it?
The Palmer Luckey post is from “Sweetpea’s Flowers”, a name that hearkens back one of the first leaks about OpenAI’s hardware:
WTF is going on here? Let’s back up and take inventory of the chronology.
What We Know About Dime
1. The first hints. In January of 2026, a now-deleted X account @zhihuipikachu posted unconfirmed supply-chain leaks that OpenAI was developing an audio device codenamed “Sweetpea.” Reports described a distinctive metal ‘eggstone’ case and small modules worn around or behind the ear. The same rumor ecosystem claimed the consumer name for Sweetpea would be Dime, citing an alleged China IP filing.
2. The Sighting. On February 9, A now-deleted Reddit account claiming to be a disgruntled OpenAI employee claimed that OpenAI canceled a Super Bowl commercial with Alexander Skarsgård that showed off the new Jony Ive-designed hardware. This was the first time we saw the alleged Dime:
3. The Denial. OpenAI forcefully and publicly denied that this was their device. The company publicly called it ‘totally false’ and ‘not connected to us at all’, and Greg Brockman tweeted that it was fake news:
So, maybe it’s not them? In fact, io hardware chief Tang Tan (yes, that Tang Tan) testified under oath in 2025:
The prototype Sam Altman referenced in the [2025 io announcement] video is at least a year away from being offered for sale. Its design is not yet finalized, but it is not an in-ear device, nor a wearable device.
So we have a senior OpenAI exec stating, under oath, that io’s first product is not in-ear earbuds, on top of the full-company denial and GDB direct denial. But the story doesn’t stop there.
4. The Gebbia Sighting. Everything got weird on March 2, 2026, when Joe Gebbia was spotted at Sightglass SF wearing The Device:
It was pretty unmistakeable: the metallic puck on the counter, the iconic (and weirdly protruding) metal spike-buds, and an oddly quiet Gebbia, just sitting there waiting to be seen. Rumors circled that OpenAI was nearing a launch, but not much came of it. Until…
5. A real advertisement?! The June 2026 issue of @WorksInProgMag featured a full-page ad that named the device and paired it with some pretty bold marketing copy:
For some reason, almost no one noticed this! Stripe has never disclosed who booked the ad, and it didn’t link to any more information about who it’s from.
6. The OpenAI Product Leaks. @markgurman, the legendary sleuth of Apple’s supply chain, breaks the news:
It sounds like a smart home speaker, not a set of earbuds. And people love the idea!
So, where does this leave us?
Today, only a few people are sure to know what Dime is and who’s behind it:
Alexander Skarsgård
Joe Gebbia
The Stripe Press publishing team
Palmer Luckey
And they’re not talking anytime soon.
As I see it, there are three plausible explanations for Dime:
This is OpenAI’s new hardware device, and they had a freak-out in February when an early version leaked. OpenAI rugpulled the super bowl ad because the product wasn’t ready, but kept a low-level hype campaign going on in the background.
There’s a different hardware startup behind Dime – one with the same supply chain as io, the same manufacturing design as Jony Ive, and a similar taste for controversy. They’ve drafted on the OpenAI hype train to earn press, but ultimately might live closer to the Palmer Luckey / Joe Gebbia universe than the Apple/OpenAI one.
This is truly a strange marketing stunt, to gain attention and cause psychosis, without a product to launch. This theory was more popular in the early days, when it was hypothesized that the agency behind it would presumably reveal itself as the oddballs who could generate twitter hype.
Here are my priors: 55% option 1, 25% option 2, 10% option 3, 10% something else.
If you know more about Dime, please let me know. I’m eager to learn!
