Apple Vision Pro Chief Paul Meade Joins OpenAI Hardware Unit

Apple vice president Paul Meade, who led Vision Pro hardware engineering for seven years and had been steering the company's smart glasses project, is leaving to join OpenAI's hardware unit, according to Bloomberg. His departure is expected as soon as next week.

The move adds a significant name to a growing roster of Apple hardware talent inside OpenAI. Last year, OpenAI acquired the AI hardware startup founded by Jony Ive, Tang Tan, and Evans Hankey for $6.5 billion, as MacRumors noted. Meade brings something different from that trio: direct experience running the hardware engineering function for Apple's most technically ambitious product, including what has been described as a display-free smart glasses project meant to rival Meta.

According to the reporting, Meade's departure is linked to a leadership reorganization following John Ternus' appointment as Apple's next CEO. Johny Srouji, previously Apple's chips chief, became chief hardware officer and initiated what has been described as a controversial shake-up of Apple's hardware engineering unit. The reporting does not detail the full scope of that reorganization or how many other senior leaders were displaced.

Fletcher Rothkopf, described as Meade's longtime deputy responsible for product design within the Vision Products Group, is expected to take over many of Meade's responsibilities. Apple's smart glasses are reportedly expected to release in late 2027, meaning that project now enters a critical development stretch without the executive who led it, as 9to5Mac noted. Whether Rothkopf's elevation proves seamless is one thing the reporting does not resolve.

What it also leaves open is what Meade will actually do at OpenAI alongside the Ive-led design team, and whether accumulating Apple hardware alumni translates into shipping consumer AI devices at Apple-like quality and scale. Talent is necessary; supply chains and manufacturing relationships are also necessary.