Apple has acquired open source photonics startup invrs.io and hired its founder, bringing community-built AI design tools in-house to accelerate next-generation hardware development.
Open-source technology sits at the heart of Apple’s latest acquisition. The company has purchased certain assets of invrs.io, a one-person startup known for developing open-source frameworks for photonics research, and hired its sole employee and founder.
Invrs.io provides standardised simulation challenges, optimisation tools and a public benchmarking leaderboard, enabling researchers to test and compare optical designs. The move signals Apple’s intent to internalise community-built, open research infrastructure to speed up hardware R&D.
The deal is structured as a micro-acquisition: Apple will acquire assets and bring on founder Martin Schubert, a former Research Scientist at Meta Platforms with more than a decade of experience across Google and Micron Technology, specialising in advanced display, chip and optical technologies.
Technically, invrs.io focuses on AI-guided design for optics and photonics, using simulation to model how light behaves in complex structures and optimise components faster. Such capabilities are directly relevant to cameras, displays, sensors and LiDAR systems that underpin Apple devices including the iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro.
The startup’s GitHub describes an accessible ecosystem for AI scientists, optimisation researchers and optics designers, reinforcing its open, collaborative roots.
The acquisition surfaced via an EU filing and was first reported by 9to5Mac.
The broader message: open-source simulation tools are becoming foundational infrastructure for big-tech hardware design, moving from public repositories into proprietary product pipelines.
