Apple is losing another senior hardware executive as Paul Meade, the leader overseeing Vision Pro development and Apple’s smart glasses work, is leaving the company to join OpenAI’s hardware team.
Bloomberg reports that Meade will leave Apple by next week and work on OpenAI’s upcoming AI-powered devices, adding another former Apple executive to the company’s growing hardware group.
Meade has worked at Apple since 2010 and joined the Vision Products Group in 2017, where he helped lead Vision Pro hardware engineering before taking charge of the broader group after Mike Rockwell moved to Apple’s Siri AI team.
At OpenAI, Meade will work with former Apple figures including Jony Ive, Tang Tan, and Evans Hankey, who are now involved in the company’s AI hardware plans.
His exit comes as Apple shifts more attention toward smart glasses, including display-free glasses designed to compete with Meta Ray-Bans, along with future augmented reality glasses planned for later this decade.
Apple’s Vision Group Faces More Change
Fletcher Rothkopf, who already leads product design for Vision Pro and smart glasses, will take over many of Meade’s responsibilities.
The move adds pressure on Apple’s Vision Products Group as the company reduces focus on enclosed headsets and pushes harder into AI wearables.
