Apple has now lost its sixth AI team member to Meta’s aggressive hiring push—marking a significant challenge to the iPhone maker’s artificial intelligence ambitions. The latest defection is Frank Chu, who has joined Meta’s Superintelligence Labs after overseeing cloud infrastructure, training, and search for Apple’s AI systems.
Who Has Left So Far?
- Ruoming Pang – Led Apple’s foundation models team; lured away by Meta with a compensation package reportedly exceeding $200 million
- Tom Gunter and Mark Lee – Former key researchers under Pang; both joined Meta’s Superintelligence team.
- Bowen Zhang – Multimodal AI researcher with Apple’s AFM team.
- Yun Zhu – Also recently departed to join Meta.
- Frank Chu – Led AI infrastructure and cloud-based model work; now the sixth major defector.
What’s Driving the Exodus?
Meta’s aggressive recruitment strategy, offering extravagant compensation packages—sometimes in the hundreds of millions—has been a major pull factor.
Meanwhile, Apple has responded by marginally raising pay within its foundation models team, but those increases still lag far behind Meta’s offerings.
The defections have also affected morale inside Apple’s AI organization, prompting discussions about strategic shifts, including adopting third-party AI models for features like Siri.
Strategic Implications
For Apple, the loss of key AI talent undermines its in-house AI development efforts. These trends compound concerns about lagging behind rivals like Google in AI innovation.
In contrast, Meta continues to fortify its AI capabilities, despite reports of a hiring freeze. The company has made exceptions for “business-critical roles,” such as these high-profile hires, signaling unwavering commitment to its AI ambitions.
