Apple Vision Pro exec Paul Meade is leaving Apple to join OpenAI’s hardware team, according to Bloomberg, in a departure that hands OpenAI one of Apple’s most senior wearables engineers at precisely the moment both companies are betting on AI-powered glasses.
Meade, who served as Apple vice president overseeing Vision Pro, also led development of the AI smart glasses Apple plans to launch next year. Bloomberg reports he is expected to leave Apple by next week, after which he will join OpenAI’s hardware unit to work on its forthcoming family of AI devices.
A Reshuffle That Pushed Senior Engineers Out
The timing is not coincidental. Apple announced in April that Tim Cook would step down as chief executive and become executive chairman, with John Ternus taking over as CEO. Ternus moved quickly to reorganise the hardware engineering team, and Bloomberg notes the restructuring left several vice presidents feeling effectively demoted. Meade’s exit appears to be one consequence.
The Ternus reshuffle also appears to have sharpened Apple’s focus on what wearables it actually intends to build. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Ternus signed off on cancelling plans for a second Vision Pro and a lighter Vision Air, leaving just two smart glasses products in development: an AI glasses line to rival Meta Ray-Bans, and a display-equipped set of augmented-reality glasses.
The original Vision Pro, priced at $3,499, never became the mass-market hit Apple needed. Retreating from a follow-up and concentrating on something far cheaper is the pragmatic call, even if it quietly concedes that the spatial-computing pitch didn’t land.
What the Apple Vision Pro Exec’s Move Tells Us About OpenAI’s Hardware Ambitions
OpenAI, for its part, is not messing around on hardware. The company acquired io, an AI hardware startup co-founded by former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive alongside Apple alumni Scott Cannon, Tang Tan, and Evans Hankey. The deal’s price tag is disputed across two credible outlets: The New York Times reported the all-stock deal at $6.5 billion, while CNBC put it at approximately $6.4 billion. Both describe an all-equity transaction and agree it is OpenAI’s largest acquisition to date. The article uses the NYT figure of $6.5 billion as the primary reference, given the NYT’s direct reporting on the deal structure, with CNBC’s approximately $6.4 billion figure noted as an alternative account.
The venture has already encountered turbulence. A company called Iyo, Inc. filed a trademark infringement complaint over OpenAI’s use of the name “io” for the hardware division, and OpenAI scrubbed references to the venture from its online platforms in response to a court order, though the underlying hardware programme was not affected.
CEO Sam Altman has said the goal is a device more peaceful and calm than an iPhone, which is a lovely brief if you can execute it. Reports from late last year suggested the company was still working out what, exactly, that means in practice.
Bringing in Meade gives OpenAI someone who has built both a high-end spatial computer and a consumer-facing AI glasses product from inside the one company that has spent decades making hardware people actually buy. Whether that pedigree translates into OpenAI’s very different operating culture is the open question.
The competitive picture is sharpening fast. Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses have shown that consumers will wear AI on their faces if the form factor is right. Apple is racing to catch up with a more affordable product. And OpenAI, fresh from a $6.5 billion bet on Jony Ive’s vision of calm computing, is now adding the Apple Vision Pro exec to its hardware bench. The wearables race in 2027 is going to look very different from anything on shelves today.
