OpenAI has picked off another top Apple hardware executive, hiring Paul Meade, the vice president who ran the Vision Pro and smart glasses teams, to lead development of its own AI-powered devices, Bloomberg reported Friday.
Meade is set to leave Apple by next week and join OpenAI's hardware unit, according to people familiar with the matter. He becomes the latest in a growing line of Apple veterans to cross over to the AI company, joining Jony Ive, former design chief Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan, who oversaw iPhone and Apple Watch product design.
The poaching spree is building the bones of what appears to be a serious hardware play. OpenAI last year formed io, a subsidiary with Ive and several LoveFrom designers, to build AI-first hardware.
Meade's experience leading the Vision Pro hardware engineering team for seven years and spearheading Apple's first smart glasses effort gives OpenAI a rare mix of consumer electronics and AR expertise.
Apple's smart glasses, designed to compete with Meta's Ray-Bans, are now expected to launch in late 2027, but the team behind them just lost its leader.
Meade's departure traces directly to the organizational shake-up triggered by John Ternus' appointment as Apple's next CEO. Chip chief Johny Srouji was elevated to chief hardware officer and initiated a restructuring in recent weeks that pushed several hardware VPs down a level.
Meade and other hardware leaders now report to Tom Marieb, a new VP of hardware engineering, rather than directly to Srouji. The restructuring left some executives feeling sidelined, MacRumors reported, and Meade is the first notable exit.
Fletcher Rothkopf, Meade's longtime deputy who runs product design for the Vision Pro and smart glasses, will take over the Vision Products Group. Meade joined Apple in 2010 as a key iPad manager, ran iPhone program management in 2012, joined the VPG in 2017, and took over all hardware engineering for the group in 2019.
