Meta’s revitalized drive into AI is unsettling the entire market, leaving Apple particularly vulnerable. With morale arguably reaching a historic low within Cupertino’s AI departments, Zuckerberg’s spree of multimillion-dollar offers may have already lured away at least one leading researcher from Apple Park. More departures could be imminent.
### What multimillion-dollar offer spree?
As per recent reports, Meta has presented enormous compensation packages to attract top AI researchers from competitors. Although OpenAI CEO Sam Altman notes that these offers have included bonuses “like $100 million,” Meta executives later specified that these amounts refer to multi-year compensation deals, rather than immediate signing bonuses. Nonetheless, even the clarifications imply that figures in the tens of millions are now competitive, prompting OpenAI to reportedly “recalibrate” its compensation in an effort to halt a talent exodus that has already seen at least six senior researchers moving to Menlo Park.
Here’s *Wired*, which highlighted a memo from OpenAI’s Chief Research Officer, Mark Chen, shared internally:
> “I feel a deep sense of loss right now, as if our home has been invaded and something valuable stolen,” Chen wrote. “Please be assured that we have not been idle.” Chen assured he was collaborating with Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, and other company leaders “around the clock to address those with offers,” adding, “we’ve become more proactive than ever, we’re adjusting compensation, and we’re exploring innovative ways to acknowledge and reward top talent.”
While most of the spotlight has been on OpenAI, *Bloomberg* reports that some members of Apple’s foundational models team have received offers between $10 million and $40 million annually. At least one senior Apple AI researcher, Tom Gunter, resigned last week, although it’s unclear if he joined Meta. Others are reportedly on the brink of leaving, including the MLX team responsible for Apple’s open-source framework for training models on Apple Silicon.
### But where did this originate?
The recent wave of talent poaching is said to have begun after Mark Zuckerberg became frustrated with Meta’s lagging position in the frontier AI race. Weeks ago, rumors circulated that Zuckerberg was personally reaching out to AI engineers in a bid to recruit them for a new initiative within Meta. That initiative was officially unveiled as the Superintelligence Lab.
Recently, Zuckerberg and his team are reported to have explored or sought acquisitions of companies like Perplexity, Safe Superintelligence, Thinking Machine Labs, and Runway AI. None succeeded, but Meta did manage to effectively acquihire Scale AI, with its former CEO, Alexandr Wang, now leading the Superintelligence Lab.
Meanwhile, Meta has attracted several senior OpenAI researchers and is now openly focusing on the same LLM and computer vision talent that Apple has historically underpaid compared to the wider market. The company is also allegedly attempting to acquire PlayAI, a voice cloning startup, and may have recruited top leaders from Google’s Gemini division.
### 9to5Mac’s perspective
The timing is unfortunate for Cupertino. As reported yesterday by *Bloomberg*, Apple is currently considering whether to outsource significant aspects of Siri’s future to third-party models from OpenAI or Anthropic, a decision that has unsettled morale within Apple’s AI workforce. *Bloomberg* indicates that some employees perceive this shift as a lack of confidence in their efforts, potentially motivating more to seek other job opportunities, especially with companies like Meta offering 2–4 times their existing salaries.
Zuckerberg isn’t taking this lightly, and he clearly understands that he has the shareholders’ approval to invest whatever is necessary to position Meta for the next stage of the AI evolution, postponing profitability for the next decade. If so, he also recognizes that few companies can endure the same strategy or match his offers, particularly if it risks exacerbating existing tensions among employees who already feel undervalued.
Apple, as is its custom, has not commented. However, if it aims to avert falling behind in this new AI era, it may need to reconsider its compensation policies. Otherwise, it won’t merely be licensing models from external sources; it will be witnessing its top talent develop them elsewhere.
