Apple’s top AI executive Ruoming Pang leaves for Meta: Report

Apple’s top executive in charge of artificial intelligence models, Ruoming Pang, is leaving the company for Meta Platforms, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Pang, manager in charge of the company’s Apple foundation models team, will join Meta’s new superintelligence team for a compensation package worth millions of dollars per year, the report added.

Meta and Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The development comes as tech giants such as Meta aggressively chase high-profile acquisitions and offer multi-million-dollar pay packages to attract top talent in the race to lead the next wave of AI.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reorganised the company’s AI efforts under a new division called Meta Superintelligence Labs, Reuters reported last week.

The division will be headed by Alexandr Wang, former CEO of data labeling startup Scale AI. He will be the chief AI officer of the new initiative at the social media giant, according to a source.

Last month, Meta invested in Scale AI in a deal that valued the data-labeling startup at $29 billion and brought in its 28-year-old CEO Wang.