Apple has seen its fourth high-profile AI expert depart in a single month, this time when Bowen Zhang, a multimodal researcher from Apple’s Foundation Models group, joined Meta’s Superintelligence Labs. This comes amid intensified efforts by Meta to recruit top-tier AI talent away from competitors including Apple.
🧠 Who’s Leaving and Why It Matters
Bowen Zhang, who worked alongside key figures in Apple’s Foundation Models team responsible for Apple Intelligence, left on July 25 to join Meta’s rapidly expanding AI division. He follows Ruoming Pang, Tom Gunter, and Mark Lee, all of whom recently moved to Meta.
Meta reportedly offered Pang a compensation package worth over $200 million, signaling just how aggressive its recruitment drive has become. Other researchers have received offers with signing bonuses up to $100 million.
🔍 Implications for Apple
- The departures are destabilizing Apple’s Foundation Models team (AFM), which had been responsible for flagship features like Genmoji, Priority Notifications, and Gen AI services on Apple devices.
- Reports indicate that team morale has fallen sharply, and several other engineers within AFM are actively interviewing elsewhere.
- In response, Apple has offered modest pay raises to retain core talent—but these remain far lower than Meta’s multimillion-dollar offers.
⚔️ Meta’s AI Talent Strategy
Meta is expanding its Superintelligence Labs, a unit focused on advanced AI systems that can operate at or beyond human-level capabilities. The company is personally recruiting talent under “startup-like” secrecy with massive compensation and infrastructure investment. Meta is already investing billions in AI infrastructure and partnerships. Business Today
The aggressive hiring spree has already pulled top names from Apple, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Scale AI—strengthening Meta’s edge in the evolving AI landscape.
✅ Summary Table
| Key Point | Details |
|---|---|
| Departed Researchers | Pang (leader), Gunter, Lee, and Bowen Zhang from Apple to Meta |
| Timing | All four departures within recent one-month period |
| Meta Compensation Tactics | Offer packages exceeding $200M to secure expert hires |
| Impact on Apple | Foundation Models team in flux; morale and retention strategies under pressure |
🔮 What’s Next?
Apple may need to rethink its talent retention and compensation strategy to compete with Meta’s deep-pocketed recruitment. Analysts like Wedbush’s Dan Ives have called for bold acquisitions—such as AI startup Perplexity—to accelerate AI capabilities and counter talent losses.
Without stronger internal investment and external hires, Apple risks falling further behind in the AI arms race—even as its major rivals like Google and Meta press ahead.
