Apple's Vision Pro Chief Paul Meade Defects to OpenAI's Hardware Division

A Seven-Year Run Ends

Paul Meade, the Apple vice president who ran hardware engineering for the Vision Pro headset and the company's forthcoming smart glasses, is leaving to join OpenAI's hardware division, according to a Bloomberg report. Meade is expected to depart Apple within a week and will work on OpenAI's planned range of AI-powered consumer devices. Neither company has commented publicly.

Meade was promoted to vice president of hardware engineering in 2019 and took charge of Apple's Vision Products Group in March 2025, after his predecessor Mike Rockwell was reassigned to lead Siri. Over seven years he helped take the Vision Pro from prototype to shipping product, and more recently steered work on the display-free AI smart glasses Apple intends to release in 2027 to rival Meta's Ray-Ban line.

A Leadership Reshuffle at Apple

The departure comes amid a broad reshuffle triggered by the appointment of hardware chief John Ternus as Apple's next CEO, effective 1 September. As part of that transition, chief hardware officer Johny Srouji reorganised reporting lines across the hardware division in May. Meade's deputy, Fletcher Rothkopf, a founding member of the Vision Products Group who was promoted to VP of product design last year, will take over his responsibilities.

Meade's exit adds to a string of high-profile losses since late 2025, including AI chief John Giannandrea, interface design head Alan Dye, and several AI researchers who left for Meta.

OpenAI's Apple Alumni Network

At OpenAI, Meade joins a fast-growing group of former Apple executives. Jony Ive's hardware startup, which included Apple veterans Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, was acquired by OpenAI last year in a deal valued at $6.5 billion. OpenAI has hired at least 25 former Apple employees for its hardware efforts and originally targeted the second half of 2026 for its first device, though reports suggest that timeline has slipped toward early 2027. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says a related smartphone could enter mass production in early 2027, and Sam Altman has described the planned device as more peaceful and calm than an iPhone.

Trouble for Apple's Vision Roadmap

The timing stings. Both Kuo and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman have reported that every planned Vision Pro successor headset has been removed from Apple's product roadmap, leaving only the two smart glasses projects Meade was overseeing. Losing the executive responsible for Apple's last remaining spatial computing bets, just as a rival assembles a dream team of Apple alumni, underlines how fierce the contest for wearable computing talent has become.