AI War: Apple's Brain Drain Due to Meta's Billion Dollar Strategy

(Dan Tri) - Apple lost AI director Ruoming Pang to Meta, exposing the fierce race for brainpower, where corporate culture is surpassing money.

On July 8, Silicon Valley witnessed an underground earthquake when Ruoming Pang, an engineer and senior manager in charge of Apple Foundation Models (AFM) group, officially joined Meta Platforms. This was no longer simply a personnel transfer, but a symbol of a tectonic shift.

The event is considered a big shock to Apple's already slow AI efforts and a clear demonstration of the most daring and expensive "headhunting" campaign in technology history initiated by Mark Zuckerberg.

Apple’s AI division appears to have suffered its biggest loss since it began developing Apple Intelligence. Not only does it blow a hole in its elite team, it also exposes deep rifts within the company, raising big questions about its ability to compete in the increasingly fierce AI race.

Meta's "stormy" campaign: Billions, ambition and Zuckerberg's personal mark

To understand why Apple lost such a key talent so easily, one must look at Meta’s ambitious and cost-effective strategy. The recruitment of Mr. Pang was not a single act, but a key link in a carefully orchestrated, systematic campaign.

According to sources close to the matter, Meta offered a package worth tens of millions of dollars a year to sign Ruoming Pang - a figure that "broke the market" and far exceeded the salary that Apple usually pays. This move shows that Mark Zuckerberg is willing to do anything to win the best minds.

But money isn’t everything. The move is part of a larger strategy Zuckerberg announced in late June: reorganizing his entire AI division to focus on a single goal—developing “superintelligence,” a form of AI that can perform complex tasks on par with or better than humans. To make that happen, Meta has pledged to invest tens of billions of dollars this year, mostly in data center infrastructure, chips, and, of course, people.

What made Meta’s campaign different was the personal touch of CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He not only approved the budget, but also got directly involved in the hiring process. Zuckerberg personally reached out to potential candidates via social media, even inviting them to his homes in Silicon Valley and Lake Tahoe for interviews and pitches—a personal and intimate approach rarely seen at the CEO level of a giant corporation.

The list of “stars” that Meta has “attracted” is getting longer. Before Mr. Pang, there was Alexandr Wang from Scale AI, investor Daniel Gross, and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. Most recently, Meta continued to recruit two leading experts from direct competitors: Mr. Li Yuanzhi from OpenAI and Mr. Anton Bakhtin, who participated in the development of Anthropic’s assistant Claude.

Clearly, Meta is conducting a "talent arms race" on an unprecedented scale, and they're aiming directly at their competitors' "treasure troves."

Meta offers a group of elite AI researchers lucrative deals to develop super artificial intelligence (Photo: Shutterstock).

Cracks from within Apple: Crisis of confidence and civil war of power

While Meta is on the offensive from the outside, Apple is facing internal turmoil. Ruoming Pang’s departure is just a symptom of a larger malaise: instability and a crisis of confidence within the company’s own AI development team.

The source of the discontent stems from a controversial strategic decision. Some of Apple's senior executives are seriously considering using third-party AI models from OpenAI or Anthropic to integrate into the next generation of Siri.

This was a huge blow to the morale of the AFM team led by Mr. Pang, who was responsible for developing in-house models for Apple Intelligence, from email summaries, web pages, emoji generation (Genmoji) to preemptive notifications. The company’s apparent lack of confidence in its own product left the team feeling slighted and disoriented.

The result is a potential “brain drain.” Several engineers in the AFM group are reportedly considering leaving Apple to follow their former boss, and the destination is none other than Meta. Previously, Tom Gunter—who was known as Pang’s deputy—left the company in June, signaling a serious rift.

The chaos has even reached the top. John Giannandrea, Apple’s senior vice president of AI, to whom the AFM team reports, has seen his power eroded. Earlier this year, he was stripped of control of key functions like Siri, robotics, and Core ML.

The power struggle is said to have added to the instability in the working environment at Apple’s AI division, fueled by the poor response to the launch of Apple Intelligence and the long delays in developing a truly intelligent new version of Siri.

Lessons in retaining talent: When culture trumps money

The story of Apple and Meta paints a picture of the AI ​​talent war, where the old rules no longer apply. While Meta is offering multimillion-dollar compensation packages, the reality is that money isn’t the only factor keeping these geniuses.

Interestingly, industry data shows that despite offering extremely competitive salaries, Meta’s employee retention rate is only around 64%. Meanwhile, Anthropic, a smaller company, retains 80% of its employees. This suggests that work culture, research environment, and mission alignment play just as important, if not more, roles than finances.

The mobility trends of AI professionals confirm this. Eight out of 10 people who left Google’s DeepMind went to OpenAI and two to Hugging Face. They often go to places that offer research freedom, where they feel their individual values ​​are respected, and where they have the opportunity to make real breakthroughs, rather than just chasing the highest salary.

This is a conundrum for Apple. Known for its closed, secretive culture and top-down approach to products, is Apple still attractive enough to top AI researchers who crave freedom, open collaboration, and a long-term vision for technology?

Pang's departure marks a significant setback for Apple's internal AI development efforts (Photo: Reuters).

Ruoming Pang’s departure is a watershed moment. It’s not just a failure for Apple, but also a wake-up call for Silicon Valley. The AI ​​race has entered a new phase, more brutal, more complex, and requires a more comprehensive strategy.

Meta, with Mark Zuckerberg's aggressiveness, flexibility and willingness to spend, is temporarily gaining the upper hand in the war for talent. They have succeeded in creating a powerful "gravity" that combines great ambition, huge resources and an environment that promises breakthroughs.

Apple, on the other hand, is at a critical crossroads. It needs to take a hard look at itself, not just its product strategy but its corporate culture. Can it create an environment that is open and trusting enough to nurture the best AI talent, or will it continue to lose talent to more nimble competitors?

The answer will not only decide the fate of Siri or Apple Intelligence, but also shape Apple's position in the next era of technology - the era of superintelligence.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/dai-chien-ai-apple-chay-mau-chat-xam-vi-chien-luoc-ty-do-cua-meta-20250708231924326.htm