Meta Intensifies AI Talent War with Apple Hires

Meta has aggressively expanded its artificial intelligence capabilities by poaching key researchers from Apple's AI teams. The social media giant recruited Ruoming Pang, former head of Apple's Foundation Models group, earlier this month with a compensation package reportedly worth $200 million over several years.

Pang's former colleagues—Lee and Gunter—have now followed him to Meta's Superintelligence Labs. Lee, Pang's first hire at Apple, has already assumed his new role, while Gunter, a respected engineer in Apple's AI division, will join imminently. These moves underscore the fierce competition for top machine learning talent among tech giants.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues to prioritize AI development through massive infrastructure investments and strategic hiring. Meta's spending on data centers has surged as it challenges OpenAI and Google for AI supremacy. The company's recruitment strategy focuses on acquiring entire teams with proven collaborative experience—a tactic that delivers both technical expertise and institutional knowledge.