Apple's Head of Apple Vision Pro and Smart Glasses, Paul Meade, to Join OpenAI

According to Aurora Beat monitoring, insiders revealed that Apple's Vice President of Hardware Engineering for the Vision Pro headset and smart glasses, Paul Meade, will resign next week and subsequently join OpenAI's hardware division to lead the development of a range of future AI hardware devices. Meade, who has been with Apple for 16 years, was previously a key engineering manager for the iPad and iPhone projects. In 2017, he joined the Vision Products Group (VPG) responsible for headset development and has been overseeing hardware engineering since 2019.

With the underperformance of the Vision Pro sales, Apple recently made significant adjustments to its hardware roadmap, shifting its focus from a closed headset to smart glasses similar to Meta's. Former VPG head Mike Rockwell has been reassigned to the Siri team, leading to the division of VPG into separate hardware and software organizations. Another key reason for Meade's departure is the recent large-scale restructuring of Apple's hardware engineering division. Following John Ternus' confirmation to succeed Tim Cook as CEO on September 1, the new Chief Hardware Officer Johny Srouji initiated the reorganization, placing several vice presidents, including Meade, reporting one level below the new Vice President, Tom Marieb, effectively demoting them.

After joining OpenAI, Meade will once again work with former Apple design executives Jony Ive, Tang Tan, and Evans Hankey. The AI hardware startup founded by the three executives was acquired by OpenAI for $6.5 billion last year. Currently, spokespeople from Apple and OpenAI have both declined to comment.