Bowen Zhang, a key multimodal AI researcher at Apple, left the company on Friday and is set to join Meta's recently formed superintelligence team, according to people familiar with the matter. Zhang was part of the Apple foundation models group, or AFM, which built the core technology behind the company's AI platform.
Meta previously lured away the leader of the team, Ruoming Pang, with a compensation package valued at more than US200-million. Two other researchers from that group - Tom Gunter and Mark Lee - also recently joined Meta. AFM is made up of several dozen engineers and researchers across Cupertino, California and New York.
In response to the job offers from Meta and others, Apple has been marginally increasing the pay of its AFM staffers, whether or not they've threatened to leave, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the moves are private. Still, the pay levels pale in comparison with those of rivals.
Spokespeople for Apple and Meta declined to comment.
Apple shares declined as much as 1.5 to 210.82, reaching a session low in New York trading. The stock was already down 15 this year through to Monday's close.