Ahead of OpenAI preparing to launch its first hardware products, yet another senior Apple hardware executive has jumped ship.
Paul Meade, an Apple VP who heads up the Vision Pro team, is leaving to join OpenAI’s hardware team, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports. Gurman said that the move was linked to John Ternus’s upcoming promotion to CEO, replacing Tim Cook, which allegedly made some staff feel that they had been “demoted.”
The news comes after former Apple design chief Jony Ive, who left the company in 2019, teamed up with OpenAI in May 2025 to work on an AI hardware device. OpenAI also acquired Ive’s "io" startup for $6.5 billion. Ive founded io in 2024 with Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan, all of whom are former Apple design chiefs.
Fletcher Rothkopf, who currently leads the product design function for the Vision Pro and smart glasses, will replace Meade.
OpenAI hasn’t said much about what its AI device will be, but has said that it has ambitions to “develop, engineer and manufacture a new family of products demanded by an entirely new company.”
In February, The Information reported that io is working on a smart speaker featuring an integrated camera, with a release expected in early 2027 and a price somewhere between $200 and $300. OpenAI is also working on a smart lamp and smart glasses, but those products won't be ready until at least 2028, as per The Information.
But it's unlikely we will actually see the io branding on whatever device eventually appears due to a trademark dispute with startup iyO.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
Ahead of OpenAI preparing to launch its first hardware products, yet another senior Apple hardware executive has jumped ship.
Paul Meade, an Apple VP who heads up the Vision Pro team, is leaving to join OpenAI’s hardware team, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports. Gurman said that the move was linked to John Ternus’s upcoming promotion to CEO, replacing Tim Cook, which allegedly made some staff feel that they had been “demoted.”
The news comes after former Apple design chief Jony Ive, who left the company in 2019, teamed up with OpenAI in May 2025 to work on an AI hardware device. OpenAI also acquired Ive’s "io" startup for $6.5 billion. Ive founded io in 2024 with Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan, all of whom are former Apple design chiefs.
Fletcher Rothkopf, who currently leads the product design function for the Vision Pro and smart glasses, will replace Meade.
OpenAI hasn’t said much about what its AI device will be, but has said that it has ambitions to “develop, engineer and manufacture a new family of products demanded by an entirely new company.”
In February, The Information reported that io is working on a smart speaker featuring an integrated camera, with a release expected in early 2027 and a price somewhere between $200 and $300. OpenAI is also working on a smart lamp and smart glasses, but those products won't be ready until at least 2028, as per The Information.
But it's unlikely we will actually see the io branding on whatever device eventually appears due to a trademark dispute with startup iyO.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.