Apple, long regarded as a pioneer in consumer technology, is facing an unprecedented challenge in its artificial intelligence (AI) division. On September 2, 2025, Jian Zhang, who led Apple’s robotics AI research, left the company to join Meta Platforms’ Robotics Studio. According to Bloomberg, this high-profile move is only the latest in a wave of departures that has seen at least a dozen of Apple’s top AI experts jump ship for Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, and other leading firms since the start of the year.
The departure of Zhang, who had been developing advanced automation technology and exploring new ways to integrate AI into Apple’s tech products, underscores the increasingly fierce competition among tech giants to secure the brightest minds in AI. While Apple has historically been known for keeping its innovations tightly under wraps, the recent exodus has become impossible to ignore. The company’s rivals, especially Meta, have been offering compensation packages that are, frankly, hard to refuse. Meta reportedly lured away Ruoming Pang, Apple’s Foundational Models team lead, with a staggering $200 million offer, as reported by Investing.com. That’s not pocket change even by Silicon Valley standards!
But Zhang’s move is particularly significant. His work focused on robotics and automation, areas where Apple has been quietly investing for years. While his team was separate from the group developing Apple’s much-rumored robot virtual companion, Zhang’s expertise was seen as critical to Apple’s long-term ambitions in AI-driven automation. Now, with Zhang at Meta, Apple faces the daunting task of filling not just a vacancy, but a leadership void in a field that’s evolving at breakneck speed.
Adding to Apple’s woes, other key members of its AI team have followed suit. John Peebles, Nan Du, and Zhao Meng—each respected in their own right—have left for OpenAI and Anthropic PBC, two companies at the cutting edge of large language model (LLM) development. According to MacRumors, the exodus began in earnest in July and shows no signs of slowing. Industry recruiters, quoted by Financial Times and echoed in multiple reports, have described the situation as a “crisis of confidence” for Apple’s AI future.
Why is this happening now? The answer seems to lie at the intersection of compensation, opportunity, and uncertainty. Meta’s aggressive recruitment tactics, including massive pay packages, are certainly a major factor. But insiders suggest there’s more to the story. Apple’s AI roadmap, particularly its plans for Siri and other voice-driven products, has been in flux. The company had been working on a smarter, LLM-powered version of Siri, with big improvements expected to debut next year. However, a key milestone was missed when the so-called “Apple Intelligence” version of Siri failed to make it into iOS 18, according to Bloomberg Law. This misstep reportedly rattled confidence within Apple’s AI ranks.
In response, Apple’s software engineering chief Craig Federighi addressed employees in an August meeting, announcing that the company had successfully developed a second-generation Siri architecture. Federighi promised “major improvements” would arrive in 2026. But for some, the reassurance came too late. As one recruiter put it to Financial Times, “The market is moving fast, and Apple isn’t keeping up.”
Faced with mounting pressure, Apple has begun exploring third-party solutions to power Siri’s AI capabilities. Sources from MacRumors and Investing.com confirm that the company has held discussions with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. Yet, no final decision has been made, and Apple’s internal debate over whether to rely on external technology has only added to the uncertainty. This indecision has caused further tension within Apple’s LLM team, with more engineers now actively interviewing for jobs elsewhere.
The stakes are high. Siri, once a trailblazer in voice-activated digital assistants, has lagged behind competitors such as Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa in recent years. Apple’s hope was that a new, AI-enhanced Siri would restore its reputation for innovation. But delays and leadership turnover have cast a shadow over those ambitions. According to MacRumors, Apple’s wavering on whether to integrate outside AI solutions has left the team in limbo. “The company’s wavering on relying on external technology has also led to further departures,” the report notes, with additional AI team members now seeking opportunities at other companies.
For Apple, the loss of so much AI talent in such a short period is more than just a PR headache—it’s a strategic crisis. The company has always prided itself on building the best products in-house, with secrecy and vertical integration as core principles. But in the fast-moving world of AI, where breakthroughs are measured in months rather than years, losing key personnel—and potentially relying on third-party technology—could mean ceding ground to rivals.
Meta’s Robotics Studio, now bolstered by Zhang’s expertise, is expected to accelerate its own AI-driven automation projects. The company has made no secret of its ambitions to lead in both consumer-facing AI and robotics. With Zhang on board, Meta’s internal teams are likely to benefit from fresh insights and new approaches to integrating AI into physical devices—a field where Apple had hoped to set the pace.
Meanwhile, OpenAI and Anthropic continue to attract top talent with the promise of working on frontier LLMs and the chance to shape the future of AI itself. Their success in recruiting from Apple’s Foundation Models team is a testament to both the allure of their missions and the uncertainty currently gripping Apple’s AI division.
What does this all mean for the average Apple user? In the short term, probably not much—Siri will still answer your questions, and your iPhone isn’t about to stop working. But over the next year or two, the choices Apple makes about how to rebuild its AI teams, whether to embrace outside technology, and how to compete with the likes of Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic will shape the future of its products in ways that could be profound.
In a landscape where the best minds in AI can command eye-watering salaries and companies are willing to pay whatever it takes, Apple’s next moves will be watched closely—not just by tech insiders, but by anyone who cares about the direction of consumer technology. The race for AI dominance is on, and for the first time in a long while, Apple finds itself playing catch-up.
