Meta has hired Frank Chu, another senior Apple executive who worked on artificial intelligence (AI), reports Bloomberg. Chu led the iPhone maker’s AI teams focused on cloud infrastructure, training and search. Citing people aware of the matter, the report says that Chu will be joining Meta Superintelligence Labs, or MSL, specifically on the infrastructure team that handles AI systems. The development comes amidst recent reports that said that the company has frozen AI hiring, prohibiting both internal team transfers and external hirings.Frank Chu is the sixth Apple AI executive to move to Meta in recent months. The wave started in July when Ruoming Pang, head of Apple’s AI models team, left for Meta in a deal reportedly worth $200 million. Over months, Meta hired Tom Gunter, Mark Lee, Bowen Zhang, and Yun Zhu from Apple to join its Superintelligence team.
Who is Frank Chu
As mentioned above, Frank Chu led Apple’s AI teams focusing on cloud infrastructure, training and search. He helped run large language models on Apple’s cloud servers, worked on training the software, and was involved in building search tools for Siri and Apple’s entertainment services.Chu’s departure is considered significant because of his senior role as a deputy to Benoit Dupin, Apple’s AI infrastructure chief. Dupin reports directly to John Giannandrea, Apple’s top AI executive.
Meta freezes AI hiring
Meta recently reorganized its AI division into four groups, led by Alexandr Wang, former head of Scale AI. In a memo seen by Bloomberg, the company told managers:“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, with the exception of business critical roles.”The company added that this pause will help plan its hiring strategy for 2026. However, Wang said in a post on microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) that Meta is still “investing more and more into Meta Superintelligence Labs.” He wrote: “We are truly only investing more and more into Meta Superintelligence Labs as a company. Any reporting to the contrary of that is clearly mistaken.”
Apple’s AI challenges
The exits have added pressure on Apple’s AI program, which has already been struggling to keep pace with rivals. Apple delayed a major Siri update and is now considering using third-party AI models instead of relying only on its own systems.Pang’s departure and the loss of several key engineers have further unsettled Apple’s AI team, leaving questions about the company’s future strategy in the fast-growing AI space.