Why we’re at the beginning of the AI hardware boom | Caitlin Kalinowski (ex–OpenAI, Meta, Apple)

Caitlin Kalinowski is the former head of robotics and consumer hardware at OpenAI, helped design the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air at Apple, and led the AR and VR hardware teams at Meta. She’s designed and engineered some of the hardest and most beloved consumer hardware products in history and is now focused on the next frontier: robotics. *In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:* 1. VR—what happened? 2. The coming memory price shock and why she’s telling startups to pre-buy now 3. How the technologies built for VR became the foundation of modern warfare 4. Why humanoid robots are still just prototypes, and what’s actually gating mass deployment 5. Lessons from Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman 6. Why she left OpenAI *Brought to you by:* WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready, with SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more: https://workos.com/lenny Vanta—Automate compliance, manage risk, and accelerate trust with AI: https://vanta.com/lenny *Episode transcript:* https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-were-at-the-beginning-of-the *Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts:* https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0 *Where to find Caitlin Kalinowski:* • X: https://x.com/kalinowski007 • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ckalinowski • Website: https://www.caitlinkalinowski.com *Where to find Lenny:* • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ *In this episode, we cover:* (00:00) Introduction to Caitlin Kalinowski (02:32) Why VR didn’t take off despite incredible hardware (04:55) The future of AR glasses and physical AI (08:45) Why robotics and hardware are suddenly hot (13:33) Why humanoid robots aren’t ready yet (16:13) Supply chain bottlenecks threatening robotics (17:31) Why magnets and actuators are critical dependencies (20:51) The geopolitical implications of hardware supply chains (24