Major Leadership Shift in Silicon Valley AI Race
Ruoming Pang, the executive who led the
Apple foundation models team, has left Apple to join Meta’s newly established
Superintelligence Labs. Bloomberg reports that Pang accepted a compensation package reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars per year, cementing his status as one of the most high-profile hires in the current AI talent war[1][3][4].
Pang’s Role and Impact at Apple
Pang, who came to Apple from Google in 2021, managed a team of around 100 researchers and engineers focused on developing the company’s large language models powering “Apple Intelligence” features. His unit was critical to advancing core functions such as Genmoji, Priority Notifications, and on-device text summarization, as well as the company’s ambitions for a next-generation Siri[2][3][4].
Meta’s Aggressive AI Push
Meta, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has reorganized its AI efforts under Meta Superintelligence Labs. The division is now headed by Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI, who holds the title of chief AI officer[1]. The company is actively recruiting top-tier AI talent to build a leading research group:
- Ruoming Pang from Apple
- Yuanzhi Li, a researcher from OpenAI
- Anton Bakhtin, formerly of Claude at Anthropic
These aggressive moves coincide with Meta’s recent investment in Scale AI, valuing the data-labeling startup at $29 billion[1].
Setbacks for Apple’s AI Program
Pang’s departure comes at a challenging time for Apple, which has been striving to build competitive in-house models. Bloomberg notes that his group was central to Apple’s vision of a more capable, AI-first Siri. However, internal debate has reportedly intensified over whether to stick with proprietary models or to embrace partnerships with tools such as
ChatGPT and
Claude[2][4].
Following Pang's exit, management of Apple’s foundation models team will pass to Zhifeng Chen under a new organizational structure[3].
Industry-Wide Competition for Top AI Talent
Pang’s move is emblematic of the broader scramble among Big Tech for artificial intelligence leaders, with Meta offering unprecedented pay to lure experts from rivals including Apple, Anthropic, and
OpenAI[3][4][5].
Meta and Apple have both declined to comment on the reported move. Pang has not offered any public statement on his departure or his new role at Meta[1][4].
Further Reading
