Synopsis : Meta has hired two key Apple AI researchers, Mark Lee and Tom Gunter, shortly after securing their boss, as the race for AI supremacy intensifies. Generous offers and Meta’s aggressive strategy highlight the chaos within Apple’s AI teams while underlining the tech industry's hunger for top-tier AI talent.
In the latest chapter of the AI talent wars, Meta Platforms Inc. has hired Mark Lee and Tom Gunter, two high-profile AI researchers from Apple, only weeks after poaching their former boss, Ruoming Pang, with a compensation package reportedly over $200 million.
The hires come as part of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s full-throttle push to make artificial intelligence the company’s top priority, with “hundreds of billions of dollars” earmarked for compute and superintelligence infrastructure. Pang, Lee, and Gunter previously worked on Apple’s large language model initiatives, shaping the foundational technology behind generative AI and Apple Intelligence.
Apple’s Foundation Models team has been grappling with uncertainty, including discussions of potentially relying on third-party models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude to power next-gen Siri features. This internal turbulence has provided Meta a golden opportunity to lure top Apple engineers with compensation packages multiple times higher than their Apple salaries.
Gunter and Lee’s exit underscores the intensifying rivalry in the AI sector as tech giants race to secure talent capable of building advanced generative models and personal AI assistants. At Meta, some of these AI recruits are positioned near Zuckerberg’s desk at the Menlo Park headquarters, signaling a direct line to the top as the company pushes forward in its superintelligence ambitions.
Apple, in response, has attempted to retain its top AI talent with raises, but these incentives are far below what Meta offers. As Meta aggressively builds its Superintelligence Labs, these hires signify a pivotal moment in the reshaping of AI leadership across Silicon Valley.
Disclaimer : This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.
