Meta Poaches Apple AI Executive, Reports Say

Apple (AAPL) has reportedly lost its top executive in charge of artificial models to Meta Platforms (META), as the Facebook parent continues to build up its new “Superintelligence” AI division.

According to Bloomberg, citing people with knowledge of the matter, Ruoming Pang, “a distinguished engineer and manager in charge of the company’s Apple foundation models team,” is leaving the iPhone maker to join Meta and has been poached with an offer “worth tens of millions of dollars per year.” 

Pang is the latest addition to Meta’s AI team, with other hires offered large packages including Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang, startup founder Daniel Gross, and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, the report said. Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that Meta was offering $100 million signing bonuses to leave the ChatGPT maker. The Wall Street Journal also confirmed the poaching of Pang.

Meta and Apple didn’t return Investopedia requests for comment. 

Zuckerberg has set up the team, aimed at beating the company’s tech rivals in achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), reportedly as he grew frustrated with Meta’s progress in the technology.  The departure of Pang is the latest blow to Apple, whose shares have slumped this year amid investor concerns that the tech giant is falling behind its big rivals on the AI development front.

Meta shares, which entered Tuesday up 22% this year, are unchanged in premarket trading. Apple shares are also unchanged in premarket trading and have lost 16% of their value this year.