Apple Vision Pro Engineering VP Paul Meade Leaves for OpenAI's Hardware Unit, Joining Jony Ive's AI Device Team
Summary
Apple Vision Pro engineering VP Paul Meade is leaving Apple to join OpenAI's hardware unit, reuniting with Jony Ive and former Apple colleagues to build next-generation AI-powered devices, as Apple struggles with Vision Pro's poor sales and pivots toward smart glasses.
Key Points
- Apple Vice President Paul Meade, who has led hardware engineering for the Vision Pro headset for seven years, is departing the company by next week to join OpenAI's hardware unit.
- Meade will work on OpenAI's upcoming family of AI-powered devices, reuniting with former Apple colleagues Jony Ive, Tang Tan, and Evans Hankey, whose AI hardware startup OpenAI acquired last year for $6.5 billion.
- The departure comes amid internal restructuring at Apple following leadership changes, with the Vision Pro considered a sales flop and Apple now shifting focus toward smart glasses to compete with Meta.