OpenAI’s hardware ambitions gained a major boost as Paul Meade, Apple’s longtime engineering leader behind the Vision Pro headset and its upcoming smart glasses efforts, is leaving Cupertino to join OpenAI’s hardware division. According to Bloomberg, Meade spent seven years leading hardware engineering for the Vision Pro and oversaw Apple’s display-free smart glasses project. At OpenAI, Meade will work alongside legendary designer Jony Ive, former Apple design chief Evans Hankey, and former iPhone operations executive Tang Tan, after OpenAI acquired Ive’s startup, io, in a deal worth $6.5 billion. Bloomberg notes that OpenAI is already working on “several new devices” expected to launch over the next few years, while Apple is simultaneously developing smart glasses, AI-enabled AirPods with cameras, tabletop robots, and other AI-centric hardware. The article cautions that Meade’s move does not confirm OpenAI is building AI glasses, but hiring the executive who helped lead Apple’s Vision Pro and smart glasses hardware strengthens the theory that OpenAI is assembling talent for wearable AI.