Meta Poaches Top Apple AI Engineer, Fueling Talent War
Snapshot
- Ruoming Pang departs Apple’s foundation models team for Meta.
- Meta reportedly offered “tens of millions” in annual compensation.
- Move highlights fierce competition for AI leadership across Big Tech.
Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has snapped up Ruoming Pang, who led Apple’s Foundation Models team, of roughly 100 engineers, to join the social media and VR firm's 'Superintelligence' unit.
It is the latest viral headline in Meta's reported push to acquire some of the best available AI talent.
Meta's hiring spree has, according to comments from OpenAI boss Sam Altman, seen the social media firm offer gigantic signing bonuses and eyewatering salaries.
Ruoming Pang has been at Apple since 2021, and, before that, was a Google engineer for some 15 years.
Media reports frame the defection to Meta as 'a significant blow' for Apple, which is continuing to fight for relevance in the rapidly advancing AI scene that's currently led by OpenAI, Google, Anthropic - followed by Meta and Elon Musk's xAI.
