Caitlin Kalinowski
One of Silicon Valley’s most accomplished hardware leaders. At Apple (2007–2012) she was thermal lead on the original Unibody MacBook Pro and technical lead on the MacBook Air and the cylindrical Mac Pro. At Meta she ran VR hardware (Rift, Quest) and then AR hardware, including Orion. Most recently she built OpenAI’s robotics and hardware division from scratch, leaving over the governance of its Department of War deal. She now works on the emerging field of robotics and physical AI.
Key ideas
- The physical world is the next frontier. As keyboard-bound AI saturates, the action moves to robotics, manufacturing, and industrialisation — built on the VR/AR sensing stack (SLAM, depth, spatial perception).
- Hardware ≠ software: you “compile” four or five times, ever. No OTA fixes, so front-load reliability; set KPIs up front, design the hardest part first, over-iterate what users touch, and act now.
- Supply chain is the binding constraint and a national-security issue — magnets → actuators → robots, all outsourced; reindustrialise; beware the “memory-price meteor”.
- Specialised robots beat humanoids for most tasks; humanoids are hype-cycle prototypes gated by safety.
- Hire generalists, scalers, and “AI-native” new grads; align on mission; trust the gut “spark”. Lessons: Sam Altman (think 100×), Steve Jobs (an unwavering bar), Mark Zuckerberg (push decisions to the lowest level).