(Reuters) -Meta Platforms has hired Apple artificial intelligence researchers Mark Lee and Tom Gunter for its Superintelligence Labs team, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, as it intensifies its pursuit for top AI talent.
The social media giant is among several technology companies that have struck high-profile deals and doled out multi-million-dollar pay packages to fast-track development of machines that could surpass humans intelligence.
Lee recently left Apple and has started at Meta, while Gunter is set to join soon, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Their exit follows Ruoming Pang, who previously left Apple for a multi-million-dollar compensation package at Meta, according to a media report earlier this month.
Lee and Gunter both worked closely with Pang, the Bloomberg report said on Thursday.
Pang was the head of Apple’s Foundation Models team and responsible for advanced AI features, sources have told Reuters.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment on the report, while Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday that his social media platform would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build several massive AI data centers.
In recent weeks, Zuckerberg has personally led an aggressive talent raid in the pursuit to create a division called Superintelligence Labs.
(Reporting by Abu Sultan and Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)