Apple’s AI strategy is steered by software head Craig Federighi and Mike Rockwell; the engineering lead behind the Vision Pro and now Siri. Meanwhile, AI research remains under John Giannandrea, who was recently stripped of direct oversight of key AI consumer products amid delays and criticism of Apple’s AI rollout.

Impatient with Meta’s slow progress in A.I., Zuckerberg in recent months has personally spearheaded an aggressive recruiting campaign. To lure talent from OpenAI, Meta is offering signing bonuses as high as $100 million, as revealed by Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, during a podcast interview in June.

The senior executive oversaw a roughly 100-person team crucial to developing Apple’s own foundation models — the very models Apple recently chose to supplement with OpenAI’s GPT-4o and potentially others.