Apple has misplaced yet one more upper-level govt to OpenAI, this time Paul Meade from its Imaginative and prescient Merchandise Group.
Longtime Apple govt Paul Meade, identified for his work on the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, is reportedly leaving Cupertino for Mission Bay. There, he’ll be a part of OpenAI alongside fellow Apple alumni Jony Ive, Tang Tan, and Evans Hankey.
Based on Bloomberg, the vice chairman of {hardware} engineering for the Imaginative and prescient Merchandise Group is about to depart for OpenAI sooner or later within the subsequent week. He’ll begin working at OpenAI’s {hardware} unit on OpenAI’s upcoming line of AI-powered gadgets.
Meade’s tenure at Apple lasted over 15 years. He first joined in 2010 as an iPad supervisor. Two years later, he oversaw program administration for the iPhone.
In 2017, he joined the Imaginative and prescient Merchandise Group. Then, in 2019, after a notable shift in Apple’s administration, he overtook all {hardware} engineering for the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional.
Meade is simply one other in a protracted line of exits. In October 2025, Apple misplaced Head of the Apple Intelligence Solutions, Data, and Data staff, Ke Yang, to Meta.
Apple’s VP of Human Interface Design, Alan Dye, additionally left for Meta two months later.
OpenAI, who acquired Jony Ive’s AI startup in 2025, appears to have a particular curiosity in poaching Apple veterans. Tang Tan, who previously labored at Apple, was instrumental in recruiting Cyrus Daniel Irani from Apple’s human interface design staff and Erik de Jong from Apple Watch {hardware}.
