OpenAI Hires Apple's Vision Pro and Smart Glasses Chief Paul Meade — Apple Loses Key Engineer as Smart Glasses Deadline Looms

Paul Meade, the Apple vice president who spent seven years building the Vision Pro's hardware and was leading Apple's pivot to smart glasses, is leaving for OpenAI's hardware team. Bloomberg first reported the move on June 26, and multiple outlets have since confirmed it.

Who Is Paul Meade?

• Role: VP of hardware engineering for Apple's Vision Products Group
• Tenure: Joined the Vision Products Group in 2017, took over all hardware engineering in 2019
• Key achievement: Led the hardware development that brought Vision Pro from concept to shipping product
• Recent role: Was leading Apple's smart glasses hardware initiative after the company scrapped Vision Pro successor plans

Why He's Leaving

The departure is part of a broader executive shake-up at Apple. Incoming CEO John Ternus — who takes over from Tim Cook on September 1 — previously oversaw all hardware engineering. His replacement as hardware chief, Johny Srouji, initiated a reorganization that resulted in several VPs being reassigned. Multiple executives reportedly felt they had been demoted, triggering departures.

What This Means for Apple Smart Glasses

Apple is expected to ship display-less AI glasses in 2027 and display-equipped AR glasses by 2029. Losing the engineer who architected Vision Pro's hardware — and was leading the glasses pivot — makes hitting that 2027 deadline harder. However, Apple's hardware teams are deep, and the company has shipped products through leadership transitions before.

What This Means for Buyers

If you were waiting for Apple smart glasses, this adds uncertainty to an already distant timeline. Today's best options remain the Meta Ray-Ban at $379, the new Meta Glasses at $299, and the Even Realities G1 for AR notifications. Samsung's Galaxy Glasses arrive July 22. See all options in our smart glasses guide.