Meta Recruits Apple's AI Head Ruoming Pang for Over $200M, Boosting Stock?

Meta has recruited Ruoming Pang, Apple's head of AI models, for a compensation package reportedly over $200 million. Pang's addition reinforces Meta's focus on AI, which is already showing up in user behavior across its platforms, with time spent and ad prices increasing. This move could boost Meta's stock, which is already up 24% YTD.

Meta Platforms Inc. has made a significant move in the AI industry by recruiting Ruoming Pang, a former Apple AI engineer, with a compensation package reportedly exceeding $200 million. This strategic acquisition underscores Meta's aggressive approach to enhancing its AI capabilities and challenging competitors like Google and OpenAI.

Ruoming Pang, who served as the head of AI models at Apple, brings extensive experience to Meta. He has an impressive academic background, having graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University, the University of Southern California, and Princeton University. Pang's career includes over 15 years at Google, where he led several groundbreaking projects, and more recently, he led Apple's AI initiatives, including the development of the training framework AXLearn and advancements in multimodal AI and language model training and optimization.

Meta's offer to Pang includes a multi-year salary structure, signing bonuses, and substantial stock awards tied to performance metrics. This compensation package is part of Meta's broader strategy to build a "superintelligence" team focused on AI systems that can perform tasks as well as or better than humans. The team now includes former GitHub chief Nat Friedman, AI startup founder Daniel Gross, and Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang, who was hired as Meta's chief AI officer with a 49% stake in his firm worth $14.3 billion.

The recruitment of top talent like Pang highlights Meta's commitment to becoming a leader in the AI industry. Despite concerns about the integration of new talent and potential internal conflicts, Meta's aggressive recruitment tactics indicate a strong focus on AI as a growth driver. The company's ongoing push into AI is already showing positive results, with user behavior across its key platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, demonstrating increased time spent and higher ad prices.

The latest move by Meta could also have implications for the company's stock performance. Meta's stock has already seen a 24% increase year-to-date, and the addition of Pang to Zuckerberg's "AI Avengers" may further boost investor confidence in the company's AI ambitions.

References:
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-09/meta-poached-apple-s-pang-with-pay-package-over-200-million
[2] https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/meta-pays-200m-for-ai-star-6961641/
[3] https://www.ainvest.com/news/meta-offers-2-billion-lure-apple-ai-engineer-2507/
[4] https://www.barchart.com/story/news/33391170/meta-just-poached-more-top-ai-talent-should-you-buy-meta-stock-here