Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Loses Another Top Executive to OpenAI

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster


Paul Meade, who oversees development on the Vision Pro and Apple's upcoming smart glasses, is leaving Apple for OpenAI, reports Bloomberg.

M5-Vision-Pro-Thumb-2.jpg

Meade took over leadership of Apple's Vision Products Group when Vision Pro chief Mike Rockwell took over Siri's AI upgrade. He was previously leading the Vision Pro hardware engineering team, and before that, he was on the iPad and iPhone teams. Meade has been at Apple since 2010, and working in the Vision Products Group since 2017.

More recently, Meade was overseeing the development of the AI smart glasses that Apple has in the works to compete with the Meta Ray-Bans, and also leading the team working on future augmented reality glasses.

Meade is leaving Apple by next week and will join OpenAI's hardware unit to work on AI devices. Fletcher Rothkopf, who heads up product design function for the Vision Pro and smart glasses, will take over for Meade. Meade's decision to leave is a result of executive changes at Apple as John Ternus prepares to take over as CEO. Apple chip lead Johny Srouji is taking Ternus's role as chief hardware officer, and the reorganization has upset some hardware executives.

Former Apple employees Jony Ive, Tang Tan, and Evans Hankey are also at OpenAI, among others.

Article Link: Apple Loses Another Top Executive to OpenAI
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/06/26/apple-loses-another-executive-to-openai/
I wonder if he was forced to resign after the VP flop. He may have been simply offered more money elsewhere, but it seems like those who don't do very well for Apple don't stick around for long (e.g. Alan Dye).
 
Nyx1 said:
People come and go nothing new on this industry.
Click to expand...
Exactly. It's a palace intrigue story for the LinkedIn set. Look at all those high-profile Meta poaches in recent years and that place, by all accounts, is an absolute dumpster fire place of employment. Every new (and old) AI upstart is throwing stupid money around trying to get a foothold, and this stuff is bound to happen. Ternus and Srouji should be given some latitude to restructure the business to suit their priorities.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BombDialog, macvicta and mdelvecchio
Lounge vibes 05 said:
It’s been over a year since that cheesy Johnny Ive OpenAI video infomercial dropped, and hardware is nowhere to be seen.
Click to expand...
They keep trying to play coy with those Dime earbuds, first with the leaked Super Bowl ad and recently with Kanye West sporting them. That said, this is absolutely the worst time for any fledgling ecosystem company to jump into the hardware game, so it tracks that OpenAI will put skyrocketing component prices on the debt ledger along with everything else.
 
It looks like he was mostly a manager and not a lead engineer become executive type. So hopefully there isn't any of the magic of the product(s) being lost.
 
Falco McGregor said:
They keep trying to play coy with those Dime earbuds, first with the leaked Super Bowl ad and recently with Kanye West sporting them. That said, this is absolutely the worst time for any fledgling ecosystem company to jump into the hardware game, so it tracks that OpenAI will put skyrocketing component prices on the debt ledger along with everything else.
Click to expand...
I think it’s funny.
Remember last year when Johnny said that the product was so good you’d “want to eat it” and that it was “like a nice quiet cabin in the woods”?
Yeah, those were definitely real things said about a real product that they planned on announcing this year, right?
 
  • Like
Reactions: KeithBN, mdelvecchio and Sergio The One
MacRumors said:


Paul Meade, who oversees development on the Vision Pro and Apple's upcoming smart glasses, is leaving Apple for OpenAI, reports Bloomberg.

M5-Vision-Pro-Thumb-2.jpg

Meade took over leadership of Apple's Vision Products Group when Vision Pro chief Mike Rockwell took over Siri's AI upgrade. He was previously leading the Vision Pro hardware engineering team, and before that, he was on the iPad and iPhone teams. Meade has been at Apple since 2010, and working in the Vision Products Group since 2017.

More recently, Meade was overseeing the development of the AI smart glasses that Apple has in the works to compete with the Meta Ray-Bans, and also leading the team working on future augmented reality glasses.

Meade is leaving Apple by next week and will join OpenAI's hardware unit to work on AI devices. Fletcher Rothkopf, who heads up product design function for the Vision Pro and smart glasses, will take over for Meade. Meade's decision to leave is a result of executive changes at Apple as John Ternus prepares to take over as CEO. Apple chip lead Johny Srouji is taking Ternus's role as chief hardware officer, and the reorganization has upset some hardware executives.

Former Apple employees Jony Ive, Tang Tan, and Evans Hankey are also at OpenAI, among others.

Article Link: Apple Loses Another Top Executive to OpenAI
Click to expand...
New Apple CEO has bought openAI.

Headline in a couple of years.
 
boswald said:
I wonder if he was forced to resign after the VP flop. He may have been simply offered more money elsewhere, but it seems like those who don't do very well for Apple don't stick around for long (e.g. Alan Dye).
Click to expand...
Dye isn’t in that boat, he wasn’t forced out (unfortunately), was recently on stage, and his departure was likely a surprise to Apple.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back