OpenAI continues to poach top talent from Apple, after successfully recruiting Paul Meade, the executive who led the development of the Vision Pro headset and the smart glasses initiative within the company, as part of its ambitions to launch a new generation of AI-powered devices.

According to a report published by Bloomberg, Meade will leave his position at Apple next week to join OpenAI's hardware unit, where he will participate in developing a range of new AI-powered devices.

Meade is one of Apple's top engineering leaders; he led the Vision Pro hardware engineering team for seven years, and also oversaw the project to develop the company's first smart glasses, expected to launch in late 2027.

This move is an extension of a recruitment campaign that OpenAI has been leading since last year, following its announcement of the establishment of io company in collaboration with renowned designer Jony Ive and his firm LoveFrom, aiming to develop devices designed to be more reliant on artificial intelligence.

The campaign previously included recruiting a number of current and former Apple designers and engineers, including Evans Hankey and Tang Tan.

Internal Restructuring at Apple

With Meade's departure, his responsibilities in leading the glasses products group will shift to Fletcher Rothkopf, who currently serves as vice president of Vision Pro and smart glasses product design.

Meade has a long professional career at Apple; he started managing iPad products in 2010, before taking over iPhone programs in 2012, then joined the Vision team in 2017, and became fully responsible for hardware engineering in 2019.

The report indicated that Meade's decision to leave Apple came in the wake of a major restructuring of the hardware division, after the appointment of John Ternus as the company's new CEO, and subsequent organizational changes led by chips chief Johny Srouji, who took over supervision of the hardware sector.

These changes led to an adjustment of the management structure, as Meade and a number of senior hardware officials now report directly to Tom Mureb, vice president of hardware engineering, instead of reporting directly to Srouji, which some executives considered a demotion within the company.

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OpenAI Apple Artificial Intelligence

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June 29, 2026Last updated: June 29, 2026

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