A senior Apple hardware executive is reportedly leaving the iPhone maker to join OpenAI, in a sign of how aggressively the ChatGPT company is building out its own consumer devices.
According to CNBC, an Apple hardware executive is exiting to join OpenAI. Reports cited by MSN identify him as Paul Meade, Apple's vice president of hardware engineering for its Vision Products Group — the team behind the Vision Pro headset and, per those reports, the company's smart glasses effort.
Meade is said to be joining OpenAI's expanding consumer hardware unit. OpenAI has signaled growing ambitions to move beyond software and into physical products, and recruiting an executive who led engineering on one of Apple's most advanced hardware lines underscores that push.
The reported departure landed during a down week for Apple's stock. As MSN noted, AAPL shares ended the week lower amid the news that the Vision Pro and smart glasses hardware head was reportedly defecting to OpenAI.
Neither source detailed Meade's exact role at OpenAI, a start date, or how Apple plans to fill the gap on its Vision Products team. The moves described here are characterized as reports rather than formally confirmed announcements.
Why it matters: a high-level talent move from Apple — long the benchmark for consumer hardware — to OpenAI suggests the AI company is serious about designing its own devices, potentially setting up a future competition for the gadgets people carry every day.