Meta has recently made headlines by offering over $200 million to entice one of Apple’s leading artificial intelligence executives to join their ranks. Ruoming Pang, who formerly led Apple’s foundation models team, has transitioned to Meta’s Superintelligence Labs. This newly founded division aims to develop advanced AI systems that can operate at or exceed human-level intelligence. During his tenure at Apple, Pang managed a team of around 100 employees focused on large language models.
The innovations from his group have been integral to Apple’s AI features, including email summaries, Priority Notifications, and Genmoji. Insiders have disclosed to Bloomberg that Meta’s lucrative offer to Pang comprises a substantial base salary, a signing bonus, and a significant stock award, which constitutes the bulk of his compensation. This total payout is contingent upon meeting performance milestones and continued employment over several years. Notably, Apple did not attempt to counter the offer, as it far surpassed the pay of all Apple employees—except for CEO Tim Cook.
Such a payout ranks among the highest ever offered in corporate America, comparable to compensation packages for executives at leading global banks. In a recent podcast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman noted that Meta has been extending signing bonuses reaching as high as $100 million to attract top talent, indicating the competitive landscape for skilled professionals in the AI sector. Following Pang’s departure, Apple has appointed Zhifeng Chen to lead its Foundation Models team and has adopted a more distributed management structure, assigning responsibilities to multiple senior engineers. Meanwhile, Meta’s Superintelligence Labs is bolstered by significant talent, including former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and founders from notable AI startups, further enhancing its capability in the AI domain.
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