Report: Apple Bleeding Talent to OpenAI

Dozens of Apple engineers and designers with expertise in audio, watch design, robotics, and other core product areas have left the company for OpenAI in recent months, the Wall Street Journal reports.

open ai logo
According to the Wall Street Journal, a review of data from LinkedIn suggests a signifiant scale and concentration of talent now moving specifically to OpenAI as it builds a dedicated hardware division. The reviewed profiles show that former Apple staff joining OpenAI include contributors to multiple flagship categories, ranging from wearable-device industrial design to platform-level audio technologies used across the iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch. Several individuals also listed experience in robotics. OpenAI is expected to launch its first hardware device next year.

Earlier this week, it emerged that Meta had hired multiple Apple employees, including longtime Apple designer Alan Dye, while conducting its own recruiting blitz for AI and smartglasses development. Meanwhile, Apple announced the retirement of Senior Vice President and General Counsel Kate Adams, Lisa Jackson, Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, and AI chief John Giannandrea. Earlier this year, Apple lost Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, who is retiring, and Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri. There have also been rumors about Apple CEO Tim Cook retiring, with rumors suggesting he is preparing to leave his role as soon as next year.

Tag: OpenAI

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Top Rated Comments

1d1otic Avatar
47 minutes ago at 07:58 am
Apple lacks vision towards AI and now, they are losing developers and engineers.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
attohs Avatar
45 minutes ago at 08:01 am
Apple lost people to Theranos back in the day
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rappr Avatar
43 minutes ago at 08:02 am
This reminds me of when Palm stole a bunch of talent from Apple after the original iPhone came out. Some engineers are always looking for that next big thing and aren’t interested in the “boring” maintenance work.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rappr Avatar
42 minutes ago at 08:03 am

Apple seems to be bleeding talent to everyone.
The problem is, no one writes articles when Apple fills these open roles, unless they are executive level.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HouseLannister Avatar
35 minutes ago at 08:10 am
4 major executives gone in a week. Rumors of Tim retiring in 2026. It's a bad look. Time to hire the CEO of a soda company. That usually fixes things.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jarman92 Avatar
31 minutes ago at 08:15 am

Ist Apple paying this badly or is the work environment not the greatest anymore either?
Apple has never paid top dollar nor had the best work environment, people want to work there because it's a very stable company that makes great products and generally doesn't do horrible things.

That being said, they're losing people because AI companies are flush with "cash" and they're getting increasingly panicked about their unsustainable, unsupportable valuations and lack of progress towards any sort of business model. So they're frantically hiring people with piles of fake money to placate investors.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)