Meta Makes Strategic Hire Amid AI Hiring Freeze

Meta Platforms has poached another top employee from Apple, despite a hiring freeze in its AI division. Frank Chu, a senior executive, joins the sixth Apple AI expert to leave for Meta. The hiring spree shows Meta's aggressive push to gain an edge in the AI market, but a hiring freeze has been implemented due to investor worries about rising costs. Analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on META stock with a 15.4% upside potential.

Meta Platforms Inc. has hired another senior executive from Apple Inc. for its Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), despite the company implementing a hiring freeze in its AI division. Frank Chu, who led Apple teams working on cloud infrastructure, training, and search, will join Meta’s MSL, according to sources familiar with the matter [1].

This is the sixth known departure from Apple’s AI models team to Meta. The high-profile defection of Ruoming Pang, who was reportedly offered a $200 million package by Meta, set the tone for the exodus. Pang was followed by engineers Tom Gunter, Mark Lee, Bowen Zhang, and Yun Zhu. Chu is seen as a significant addition, having worked closely with Benoit Dupin, Apple’s head of AI infrastructure, who reports directly to John Giannandrea, the company’s AI strategy chief [1].

At Meta, Chu will take on a role in a new team called MSL Infra, focusing on AI infrastructure. This move is part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s push to assemble a “superteam” of AI talent under the leadership of Alexandr Wang, the former Scale AI CEO who now oversees Meta’s AI operations [1]. Despite the wave of hiring, Meta has begun slowing recruitment across all MSL teams, except for business-critical roles, to allow leadership to plan 2026 headcount growth more carefully [1].

For Apple, the departures deepen existing challenges. The company has faced delays in its ambitious Siri overhaul and is considering the use of third-party AI models to power the assistant after years of developing its own. Pang’s exit and Apple’s uncertain strategy have rattled its AI division, sparking a broader talent drain [1].

Meta’s aggressive AI hiring strategy is backed by strong financial performance. The company’s stock hit an all-time high of $790 following its Q2 earnings report, with a market capitalization nearing $2 trillion [3]. Analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on META stock, with a target price of $871.84, implying a 15.4% upside potential [3].

However, Meta’s focus on AI comes with risks. The company’s shift to debt financing raises concerns about potential cash flow constraints and profitability if AI returns fall short of expectations. Additionally, the lack of clear timelines for AI monetization and parallels to Meta’s previous high-cost investments in Reality Labs have sparked skepticism among investors [3].

References:
[1] https://www.outlookbusiness.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-snags-another-senior-apple-ai-exec-for-superintelligence-labs-as-it-mulls-hiring-freeze
[2] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-hires-another-apple-ai-134931769.html
[3] https://www.ainvest.com/news/meta-platforms-valuation-nears-2-trillion-ai-investments-2508/