Apple is losing Paul Meade, vice president of hardware engineering in its Vision Products Group, who spent seven years building the Vision Pro and was leading the push into AI smart glasses with a late 2027 launch target. Meade will leave Apple by next week to join OpenAI's hardware division, according to Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter; Apple and OpenAI both declined to comment. The departure is the most consequential hardware engineering exit from Apple yet in a string of VP-level defections over the past eight months. Meade takes specific expertise in wearable systems architecture as Apple races to ship display-free smart glasses expected in late 2027. At OpenAI, Meade will join Jony Ive, Tang Tan, and Evans Hankey, former heads of Apple design, hardware product design, and industrial design, who co-founded an AI hardware startup that OpenAI acquired in May 2025 for $6.5 billion. Fletcher Rothkopf, Meade's deputy and head of product design for both the Vision Pro and smart glasses programs, will assume Meade's responsibilities.