Paul Meade, the Apple vice president in charge of the Vision Pro headset, will depart next week to establish OpenAI's hardware division.
Meade heads the Vision Products Group and has led hardware engineering for the Vision Pro for seven years. He also oversaw Apple's smart glasses projects during that time.
Bloomberg reported that Meade will oversee development of a family of AI-powered devices at OpenAI. The move comes as the company continues its collaboration with Jony Ive's io studio, which merged with OpenAI in a $6.5 billion deal last year.
Fletcher Rothkopf, a founder of the Apple Vision Pro team, will assume many of Meade's duties. Apple has no plans to release its first smart glasses model before the end of 2027.
The departure is linked to the upcoming appointment of John Ternus as Apple's CEO on September 1. Ternus currently serves as senior vice president of hardware engineering.
