Meta’s AI hiring spree has claimed another senior executive from Apple. Frank Chu, who led Apple’s AI-focused cloud infrastructure and played a key role in managing large language models and Siri search features, will soon join Meta’s Superintelligence Labs (MSL), according to a Bloomberg report. The division was recently formed by Mark Zuckerberg and is headed by Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI.
Chu’s exit follows a wave of departures from Apple’s AI team, beginning in July with Ruoming Pang, Apple’s models team lead, who reportedly moved to Meta with a package exceeding $200 million. He was later followed by engineers Tom Gunter, Mark Lee, Bowen Zhang, and Yun Zhu. With his seniority and role as a lieutenant to Benoit Dupin, head of AI infrastructure under Apple’s AI chief John Giannandrea, Chu’s departure marks the second most high-profile loss for Apple after Pang.
At Meta, Chu will reportedly join the newly formed MSL Infra team, responsible for AI infrastructure. The shift comes even as Meta announced in an internal memo that it is temporarily pausing hiring across all MSL teams, except for business-critical roles. “In order to responsibly manage our headcount and ensure our open and future roles are aligned with our top priorities, we’re temporarily pausing hiring across all MSL teams,” the company wrote, as per Bloomberg.
These moves highlight the intensifying talent war in AI. With Apple struggling to accelerate its AI roadmap—including delays in a much-anticipated Siri revamp and reports of possible reliance on third-party models—the exits of Pang and Chu signal mounting challenges for the iPhone maker in keeping pace with rivals.