Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) suffers another major loss: Vision Pro executive joins OpenAI, escalating the competition for talent in the AI field.

Paul Meade, the core executive in charge of Vision Pro headsets and smart glasses business at Apple Inc. (AAPL.US), is set to leave the company and join OpenAI. Following the departure of several veteran designers, yet another senior talent from Apple Inc. is moving to a competitor in the AI and hardware field. According to sources familiar with the matter, Meade, who is a vice president at Apple Inc., will officially resign next week and then join the hardware department at OpenAI, where he will be involved in the development of their upcoming AI-driven device product line. Due to the confidential nature of the personnel changes, the sources requested anonymity. Having led Vision Pro for seven years, Meade's departure is a major blow to Apple Inc. He has been overseeing the hardware engineering of Vision Pro headsets for seven years, and this product was once seen as the next significant computing platform for Apple Inc. Both Apple Inc. and OpenAI declined to comment on this matter. In addition, Meade was also responsible for developing Apple Inc.'s smart glasses without a display screen. This project aims to enter the AI wearable device market next year and compete head-on with pioneers like Meta Platforms. The "Vision Product Group" (VPG) under his leadership is also responsible for the development of augmented reality glasses by the end of this decade and the exploration of various AI-related wearable devices. Most of Meade's responsibilities will now be taken over by his long-time deputy, Fletcher Rothkopf, who currently oversees the product design functions of Vision Pro and smart glasses. Meade is highly respected within Apple Inc., having joined as a key manager for the iPad in 2010, then becoming the head of the iPhone project in 2012, and transitioning to the Vision Product Group in 2017 before taking over hardware engineering in 2019. At OpenAI, Meade will be working alongside three former Apple Inc. colleagues - Jony Ive, Tang Tan, and Evans Hankey - who were previously in charge of design, hardware product design, and industrial design at Apple Inc. The AI hardware startup founded by these three has been acquired by OpenAI for $6.5 billion last year. OpenAI has announced that they are developing several new devices that are expected to be launched in the coming years. Meanwhile, Apple Inc. is also advancing several AI products, including smart home devices, desktop Siasun Robot & Automation, wearable accessories, and AirPods equipped with environmental awareness cameras. This move of a vice president-level executive from Apple Inc. to a competitor is highly unusual, with the exception of the design team led by Ive who left collectively earlier. Another exception is Alan Dye, who was in charge of Human-Computer Interaction at Apple Inc. and moved to Meta in December last year. OpenAI has also recruited several grassroots technical personnel from Apple Inc.'s hardware engineering department. Meade's departure is directly related to the internal power shift at Apple Inc. John Ternus, who has long been in charge of all hardware engineering, Meade's former boss, will take over as CEO on September 1, replacing Tim Cook. Johnny Srouji, head of chip business, will be promoted to Chief Hardware Officer, replacing Ternus, and has carried out a controversial restructuring of the hardware engineering department in recent weeks. Several vice presidents who were previously under Ternus were reassigned, with some executives feeling that they were demoted. With Srouji overseeing all hardware, Meade and several other hardware leaders will now report to the new Vice President of Hardware Engineering, Tom Marieb, rather than directly to Srouji; Marieb will then report to Srouji, essentially moving several executives down a level in the organizational structure. As Vision Pro's sales have been poor, Apple Inc. is shifting its focus to smart glasses, adding more uncertainty with Meade's departure. Meade's predecessor, Mike Rockwell, had previously stepped down as team leader to take over the Siri business, and took several Vision Pro executives with him to help launch Siri AI this year, while also splitting the Vision Product Group into separate hardware and software departments. Due to the poor performance of Vision Pro in the market, Apple Inc. has made significant adjustments to its product roadmap, drastically reducing the priority of closed-head headsets and focusing on smart glasses instead. Over the past two years, the company has launched and canceled multiple headset plans, including a lighter and cheaper version originally planned for 2027. According to reports, Apple Inc. is now redesigning closed-head headsets and testing devices, with the earliest expected launch towards the end of 2028 or 2029. Meade's departure has undoubtedly added to the challenges faced by Apple Inc.'s headset business.