Meta Spends $200M+ to Snag Apple’s AI Lead

Apple’s top AI executive, Ruoming Pang, is heading to Meta in a deal worth over $200 million, as reported by Bloomberg. The hire is part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s escalating push to staff Meta’s elite “superintelligence” team.

Bloomberg stated that Pang was a distinguished engineer leading Apple’s foundation models team before accepting the massive multi-year offer. His departure adds to a growing list of high-profile hires at Meta as it races to dominate the next wave of AI development.

A high-priced hire for a high-risk AI mission

Meta finalized Pang’s hire within a week, moving quickly to lock him into its top-tier AI initiative. His official title has not been disclosed.

The $200 million deal reportedly includes salary, a signing bonus, and a hefty stock package. But it’s a high-stakes setup: Most of the payout is tied to long-term retention and company performance, meaning Pang will receive the full amount if both conditions are met.

Zuckerberg has been personally involved in staffing Meta’s superintelligence team. The effort has taken on new urgency after Llama reportedly fell short of internal expectations.

The Apple AI engineer Meta wanted – and got

Pang joined Apple in 2021 after working at Alphabet. By the time he left Apple, he was managing a 100-person AI team across platforms. At Apple, Pang’s team developed the large language models behind features such as Genmoji, Priority Notifications, and AI summaries in Mail and Safari.

According to the same Bloomberg report, the foundation models group had come under scrutiny from new leadership exploring third-party models like OpenAI and Anthropic; those internal discussions reportedly affected morale. His top deputy, Tom Gunter, had exited weeks earlier, and Apple restructured the group following Pang’s departure.

Apple did not attempt to counter Meta’s offer, which reportedly exceeded compensation for nearly all Apple executives aside from CEO Tim Cook. Meta, Apple, and Pang declined to comment, as per Bloomberg.

Meta’s spending billions for its AI dream team

Pang’s arrival adds to a growing roster of high-powered AI talent moving to Meta. The superintelligence team now includes GitHub’s former CEO Nat Friedman, AI startup founder Daniel Gross, and Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang — whose firm Meta took a $14 billion stake in to secure his leadership. Former OpenAI researchers Yuanzhi Li and Anton Bakhtin are also among the recruits.

Sam Altman has publicly slammed the hiring spree, claiming that Meta offered signing bonuses up to $100, and calling the approach “ distasteful”.

Meta is pouring in billions and pulling AI talent from all directions, but will it be enough to dominate the race to superintelligence?

While Meta keeps luring top AI talent, OpenAI is moving to defend its ranks. Find out how the company is striking back.