Midjourney, the self-funded generative-image company that built one of the most popular AI products without taking a dollar of venture capital, is stepping off the screen and into the physical world. The company confirmed it will announce its first hardware project at an in-person launch event in San Francisco on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, at 6 p.m. Pacific Time, with a livestream for those who could not secure one of the few in-person invitations.
The reveal marks Midjourney's most ambitious bet yet — a move from pure software into a category that has humbled far better-funded entrants.
Key Highlights
- Midjourney announced its first-ever hardware product, to be revealed at a livestreamed San Francisco event on June 17, 2026.
- The project has been informally referred to as "Orb" and is led by founder David Holz alongside head of hardware Ahmad Abbas.
- Both leaders carry deep hardware pedigree: Holz co-founded the hand-tracking firm Leap Motion, and Abbas previously managed hardware engineering for Apple's Vision Pro.
- Midjourney remains profitable and entirely self-funded, giving it unusual freedom to experiment without investor pressure.
- The company has been openly hiring hardware and electrical engineers in San Francisco for more than a year.
Details
Midjourney first signaled its hardware ambitions in 2024, when it formally launched a dedicated hardware team and began recruiting engineers. Founder David Holz has spoken about a small physical project, informally nicknamed "Orb," that would sit at the intersection of the company's image, video, and forthcoming 3D models.
The exact form and function of the device remain officially unconfirmed ahead of the event. Reporting and Holz's own past comments point toward something built for AI-generated 3D worlds and real-time generated experiences rather than a productivity gadget. Holz has described Midjourney's image model as "a really slow game engine" and has floated a longer-term vision of "a console in a few years with an AI processor that simulates all games in real time."
Leadership signals seriousness about the physical product. Ahmad Abbas, Midjourney's head of hardware, previously served as a hardware engineering manager on Apple's Vision Pro and, like Holz, worked on Leap Motion's hand-tracking systems. That combination of spatial computing and gesture-tracking experience hints at a device concerned with how people physically interact with generative content.
Impact
Midjourney enters a category littered with cautionary tales. The Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1 both launched amid enormous hype and quickly became symbols of the gap between AI demos and shippable consumer hardware. Building physical products demands supply chains, manufacturing discipline, and margins that pure software companies rarely have to master.
What sets Midjourney apart is its financial position. Because the company is profitable and self-funded, it can absorb the risk of an experimental device without the quarterly pressure that pushed earlier AI-gadget startups to over-promise. If the product connects to Midjourney's existing creative pipeline rather than trying to replace the smartphone, it could sidestep the trap that sank its predecessors.
Background
Founded by David Holz, Midjourney became one of the defining tools of the generative-AI era, growing a massive community through its Discord-first image generator before expanding to a standalone web app and a video model. Holz's history with Leap Motion — a company built entirely around physical interaction with computers — has long fueled speculation that Midjourney would eventually return to hardware.
The company's roadmap increasingly frames image generation as one layer of a larger system spanning video and interactive 3D worlds, with hardware as a potential gateway to experiencing that content directly.
What's Next
The San Francisco event is expected to provide the first concrete look at the device, its purpose, and its pricing. Until the livestream, specifications remain unconfirmed, and observers across the industry are watching to see whether Midjourney can do what Humane and Rabbit could not: turn AI hype into hardware people actually want.
For the MENA region's fast-growing community of designers, studios, and creative technologists who have adopted Midjourney heavily, a dedicated creative device — if priced and positioned well — could reshape how generative work moves from prompt to physical experience.
Source: Midjourney