Apple Gives iPhone Designers Bonuses Up to $400K to Counter OpenAI Poaching - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Gives iPhone Designers Bonuses Up to $400K to Counter OpenAI Poaching

by

Apple gave its iPhone Product Design team bonuses worth "several hundred thousand dollars" in an effort to keep them from being poached by other companies, reports Bloomberg. The bonuses were provided as restricted stock units (RSUs) that will vest over a four-year period.

Apple Logo Cash Feature Mint
Hardware designers given bonuses will need to stay with Apple to get the full value of the stock award, which can range from $200,000 to $400,000 or even more depending on how Apple stock does over the next several years.

Apple executives are concerned with the number of engineers the company has been losing to rivals like OpenAI. Several former Apple designers are now working on hardware products at OpenAI, including former Apple design chief Jony Ive. OpenAI has been recruiting Apple engineers that worked on the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro, and it has hired over 40 former Apple employees.

In 2021 and 2022, Apple also handed out stock bonuses to engineers in silicon design, hardware, software, and operations to thwart poaching and increase employee retention.

Tag: OpenAI

Popular Stories

openai logo word mark

OpenAI Codex Update Adds Computer Use, Image Generation, and Memory on Mac

Thursday April 16, 2026 10:00 am PDT by
OpenAI is making several updates to its Codex AI coding agent. Codex is now able to operate desktop Mac apps with its own cursor, seeing what's on the screen, clicking, and typing to complete tasks. Codex can run multiple agents on the Mac in parallel, without interfering with the user's own work. OpenAI says developers will find it useful for testing apps, iterating on frontend changes, and ...
Read Full Article • 45 comments
openai chatgpt logo

OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Images 2.0 With Thinking Capabilities and Better Text Rendering

Wednesday April 22, 2026 9:28 am PDT by
OpenAI this week introduced ChatGPT Images 2.0, which the company says brings a new era of image generation. Images 2.0 is an updated model that can better handle complex visual tasks. It is able to follow detailed instructions, placing and relating objects accurately, preserving fine detail, and rendering dense layouts. Images 2.0 is OpenAI’s first image model with thinking capabilities,...
Read Full Article • 37 comments
openai chatgpt logo

OpenAI Debuts GPT-5.5 Claiming Agentic Coding and Research Gains

Friday April 24, 2026 5:32 am PDT by
OpenAI has announced the release of GPT-5.5, the latest upgrade to the company's family of models powering its ChatGPT and Codex apps. OpenAI describes GPT-5.5 as better at multi-step work, claiming it can plan, use tools, and verify its own output with less hand-holding. The model is said to offer gains in agentic coding, computer use, and early-stage scientific research. GPT-5.5...
Read Full Article • 28 comments

Top Rated Comments

WarmWinterHat Avatar
WarmWinterHat
6 weeks ago

Honestly, I’m not surprised. Without a true visionary like Steve Jobs, Apple feels like it’s slowly losing its edge.

Remember when Jobs introduced the iPhone as the “iPod killer", “an iPod, a phone, and a breakthrough internet communicator”? I think something similar is coming again, but this time, it won’t be Apple leading it. What OpenAI is building, especially with someone like Jony Ive involved, has the potential to be the iPhone killer. Not just another device, but an entirely new way of interacting with technology.

It would be more like a presence, something that’s always there, always listening (seeing) when you need it, but never in the way.

You wouldn’t open apps or tap through screens.

You’d just talk.
Just talking is fine when you're by yourself. It doesn't work in an office, in the public, on a bus, in a car with others, on a plane, at the airport.. It's just a bad idea. Typing/taping is private.

The Altman/Ive misadventure is going to be a dud.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
W
willzyx
6 weeks ago
So they got restricted stock that may be worth up to $400k one day. All OpenAI has to do is counter with $400k sign up bonus. They are burning through so much cash, I don't think they'd care.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Abazigal Avatar
Abazigal
6 weeks ago

If revamped Siri fails, they're gonna have to start giving customers RSU's to keep them from jumping ship.
Users have been free to switch at any time. The iPhone is more than any one feature thanks to the strength of its ecosystem. Siri is a bummer in its current state, but hardly the death knell you all love making it out to be.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tennisproha Avatar
tennisproha
6 weeks ago
If revamped Siri fails, they're gonna have to start giving customers RSU's to keep them from jumping ship.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C
CarAnalogy
6 weeks ago

Honestly, I’m not surprised. Without a true visionary like Steve Jobs, Apple feels like it’s slowly losing its edge.

Remember when Jobs introduced the iPhone as the “iPod killer", “an iPod, a phone, and a breakthrough internet communicator”? I think something similar is coming again, but this time, it won’t be Apple leading it. What OpenAI is building, especially with someone like Jony Ive involved, has the potential to be the iPhone killer. Not just another device, but an entirely new way of interacting with technology.

It would be more like a presence, something that’s always there, always listening (seeing) when you need it, but never in the way.

You wouldn’t open apps or tap through screens.

You’d just talk.
Yeah, we keep describing the Enterprise Computer used through a Communicator.

But instead of teleportation and tactical analysis we’ll just get more ads.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
L
locovaca
6 weeks ago
They would’ve done cash but it would’ve required putting ads into the contacts app too
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments