Meta Platforms Inc. has hired two leading artificial intelligence researchers from Apple Inc. This recruitment comes shortly after the company brought on their former supervisor. Mark Lee has already started at Meta, while Tom Gunter is set to join soon. This move underscores the growing competition in the tech industry for AI talent, as Meta actively seeks top experts to advance its goals in artificial intelligence.
Bloomberg reported that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made artificial intelligence a top priority, investing significantly in talent and data centres to better compete with industry leaders like OpenAI and Google. Gunter and Lee previously worked under Ruoming Pang, Apple’s chief of large language models. Meta recruited Pang earlier in July 2025 with an impressive compensation package exceeding $200 million. Lee was the first hire by Pang at Apple, while Gunter was one of the senior team members.
Meta hired a pair of key artificial intelligence researchers who worked at Apple, shortly after poaching their former boss from the iPhone maker https://t.co/4V0JXdJhU8
— Bloomberg (@business) July 17, 2025A Meta spokesperson declined to comment, and Apple did not respond to requests for information.
Meta’s recent developments highlight the instability within Apple’s Foundation Models (AFM) team, which is responsible for creating generative AI technology. Apple executives are contemplating the use of external models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, for features like Siri. This shift could potentially reduce the influence of the AFM team. To retain their talent, Apple is offering salary increases, but these raises often lag behind Meta’s lucrative compensation packages, which can exceed $100 million for multi-year contracts.
Zuckerberg emphasised on Threads: “I’m focused on building the most elite and talent-dense team in the industry.” He plans “hundreds of billions of dollars” in AI investments, with top hires working near him in Menlo Park.
