Meta Hires Two Former Apple AI Specialists Amid Intensifying Talent War

Meta, the tech giant behind Facebook and Instagram, has continued its efforts to bolster its workforce by hiring two former Apple AI specialists, Mark Lee and Tom Gunter. This move comes shortly after the company recruited their former supervisors, demonstrating a growing trend of intense competition for AI talent within the tech ecosystem. Both experts are set to join Meta’s Superintelligence Labs team, with Lee already starting his new role and Gunter expected to begin in the coming days.

Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has shown a strong commitment to artificial intelligence, driven by its increasing global demand. This dedication is evident in the company’s significant investments in AI, the recruitment of top AI talent, and a substantial increase in spending on data centers. Meta aims to solidify its position as a leader in AI, outpacing rivals such as OpenAI and Google.

In addition to Lee and Gunter, Meta recently recruited Ruoming Pang, the former head of Apple’s Foundation Models team. Pang was offered a significant salary package of $200 million, effective for several years. Pang, along with Gunter and Lee, had previously worked together at Apple. Lee was Pang’s first hire at Apple, while Gunter was a reputable engineer in the firm. After leaving Apple, Gunter initially accepted a job offer from another AI company but later stepped down following Meta’s offer.

Meta’s recent hiring spree highlights ongoing disruptions within Apple’s Foundation Models (AFM) team, which is responsible for developing technology useful in generative AI. The AFM team is also facing uncertainties due to Apple’s AI executives’ decision to integrate external models into their operations to improve features like the Siri voice assistant. AI Senior Vice President John Giannandrea, along with research leader Daphne Luong and software leaders Mike Rockwell and Craig Federighi, are currently overseeing these strategic changes.

Apple is developing parallel versions of its voice assistant using in-house AI models and third-party technologies to deliver long-promised enhancements to Siri. However, before its launch next spring, the company must decide which software backbone will power the revamped assistant. Meta has capitalized on Apple’s internal indecision by aggressively recruiting its AI talent with highly lucrative job offers, often several times higher than Apple’s compensation for engineers in its Apple Foundation Models group. In response, Apple has begun issuing raises to select members of the roughly 100-person team to retain talent. Yet, these counteroffers are significantly lower compared to what Meta is offering. One high-profile defector, Gunter, is among several AI specialists receiving multiyear compensation packages exceeding $100 million.

Mark Zuckerberg recently underscored Meta’s ambitions, posting on Threads that the company plans to “invest hundreds of billions of dollars into computers to build superintelligence”—a nod to AI that surpasses human capabilities. At Meta’s Menlo Park headquarters, some of its top AI recruits have been strategically seated near Zuckerberg to enable close collaboration on the company’s most critical AI initiatives.