Meta Raids Apple’s AI Team as Top Engineers Defect and Siri’s Future Hinges on Google Deal

Meta Poaches Top Apple AI Talent as Executive Exodus Continues

Apple has suffered another significant blow to its AI division with Frank Chu, the director of AI engineering, defecting to Meta. This departure adds to a growing list of core team members leaving Apple for Meta, intensifying the challenges Apple faces in advancing its AI initiatives. As a result, Apple appears to be turning to Google for technical collaboration to bolster its AI capabilities.

Frank Chu: A Pillar in Apple’s AI Infrastructure

Frank Chu’s move to Meta marks him as the sixth prominent AI expert to leave Apple for the social media giant. Since joining Apple in 2019, Chu played a critical role in developing and deploying Apple’s Foundation Model (AFM) and other large language models (LLMs). He led both the inference deployment and data pre-training efforts, directly supporting key Apple products such as Siri, Safari, Apple Music, Apple TV, and the App Store through advanced search technologies.

Before Apple, Chu was instrumental at Waymo, where he built the company’s training infrastructure from the ground up, managing over 2,000 TPUs for large-scale model training. His background also includes nearly a decade at Google Search, solidifying his expertise in AI infrastructure and search technologies.

Meta’s AI Hiring Freeze Amidst Aggressive Talent Acquisition

Despite aggressively recruiting over 50 AI researchers and engineers from industry leaders like OpenAI, Google, Apple, xAI, and Anthropic, Meta has recently imposed a hiring freeze within its AI department. This move includes halting cross-team transfers and applies primarily to the Meta Super-Intelligence Lab (MSL), where Frank Chu will now contribute.

The freeze, confirmed by a Meta spokesperson, is part of a broader department reorganization aimed at planning employee growth for 2026. Exceptions to the freeze require approval from Meta’s Chief AI Officer, Alexandr Wang, who emphasized continued investment in Meta's super-intelligence projects despite the pause in hiring.

• Meta AI Teams:
  • TBD Lab focused on super-intelligence
  • AI product development team
  • Infrastructure team
  • Fundamental AI Research team handling exploratory projects
• The formerly named AGI Foundations team, responsible for the Llama model, was disbanded following underperformance and executive criticism.
• Meta has successfully recruited AI talent from competitors, including 20+ from OpenAI and over a dozen from Google.

Apple Looks to Google for AI Model Support to Revamp Siri

With key personnel losses, Apple’s AI efforts face increasing pressure. Reports indicate Apple is negotiating with Google to build a customized AI model to underpin the next-generation Siri. Google is reportedly training a model optimized for Apple’s server environment, signaling Apple’s strategy to leverage third-party AI expertise to catch up in generative AI.

Apple’s late start and slow progress in AI have led it to explore partnerships beyond Google, including evaluations of Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s ChatGPT as potential AI brains for Siri. This pragmatic approach reflects Apple’s urgency to strengthen its AI offerings without relying solely on internal development.

What This Means for Executives and Strategy Teams

For executives steering AI strategies, the ongoing talent shifts and organizational changes at Meta and Apple highlight critical considerations:

• Talent retention is crucial. Losing key engineers can stall innovation and delay product roadmaps.
• Strategic partnerships may be necessary to accelerate AI capabilities when internal development lags.
• Organizational agility is vital—Meta’s hiring freeze amid restructuring shows the importance of aligning talent growth with long-term strategy.
• Monitoring competitor moves helps anticipate shifts in AI leadership and potential market advantages.

Executives should consider how external collaborations and strategic hiring can support their AI ambitions effectively while managing risks related to talent poaching and project continuity.

For those interested in expanding their AI leadership skills or understanding how to manage AI talent and strategy, resources like Complete AI Training’s executive courses offer practical insights tailored for decision-makers.