In a major development in the ongoing AI talent war, Meta has reportedly hired Apple’s AI model head to join its ambitious Superintelligence team — a division focused on building advanced, human-level AI systems. This high-profile shift signals Meta’s growing urgency to lead the race for general AI, and industry insiders suggest more key executives from Apple could soon follow.
A Big Win for Meta
The AI leader who departed Apple played a crucial role in developing on-device intelligence and LLM optimization — areas Apple has only recently started showcasing publicly with the launch of its own AI features in iOS. By bringing this talent into its fold, Meta strengthens its position in the race to build artificial general intelligence (AGI).
While the name of the executive has not been disclosed officially, sources familiar with the matter indicate that the move is part of Meta’s broader effort to aggressively scale its FAIR (Fundamental AI Research) and GenAI teams, both of which now report into the newly formed Superintelligence division.
The Battle for Top AI Talent Intensifies
Tech giants are investing billions into AI infrastructure, but talent remains the key differentiator. Meta, OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and now Apple are all competing for the same small pool of top AI researchers and engineers. With Meta already poaching several high-ranking individuals from Google and Microsoft in recent months, the Apple-to-Meta pipeline could signal a deeper shift in talent migration.
What’s Meta’s Superintelligence Team?
Led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and AI Chief Yann LeCun, the Superintelligence group is tasked with developing AGI — AI systems that can perform any intellectual task a human can do. The team is working on large-scale training, multi-modal reasoning, and real-time interaction — all aimed at deploying more capable AI agents in Meta’s products like Instagram, WhatsApp, and the metaverse.
What It Means for the Industry
This high-stakes hire underlines two clear trends:
- AI is becoming central to platform strategy across big tech.
- The fight for AI leadership is as much about talent as it is about compute and models.
With Meta’s AI ambitions now more transparent and aggressive, the competition for next-gen AI dominance is heating up — and it’s only getting started.
