AI startup Hark revealed as secret firm that hired Apple’s iPhone Air designer

iPhone Air

• Apple designer Abidur Chowdhury joins new AI startup Hark led by Brett Adcock
• Hark to develop "human-centric" AI with $100M from Adcock's personal funds.
• Startup hires 30 engineers from tech giants, aims for 100 by mid-year

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Two months after reports first surfaced about a senior Apple designer quietly exiting the company for an unnamed AI venture, the mystery has now been cleared up. According to a new report from Bloomberg, the designer in question has joined a newly formed artificial intelligence startup called Hark.

The designer is Abidur Chowdhury, an industrial design lead best known for introducing the iPhone Air at Apple’s September product event. His departure raised eyebrows at the time, particularly because it coincided with growing competition between consumer hardware companies and emerging AI-first firms. Until now, however, the destination of his next role remained undisclosed.

Bloomberg reports that Chowdhury has left Apple to join Hark, a little-known AI startup that was founded only weeks ago. The company is led by Brett Adcock, who is also the CEO of Figure AI. Adcock is said to be personally funding the new venture, rather than raising money from traditional investors.

Details about Hark remain scarce, but a memo previously seen by The Information sheds some light on its early ambitions. The document indicates that Hark was launched with $100 million in funding from Adcock’s own capital. The company describes its mission as building “human-centric” AI systems that can think proactively, improve themselves recursively, and show a deep level of care for people. While such language is broad, it suggests a focus on general-purpose or assistive AI rather than narrow enterprise tools.

The memo also revealed that Hark recently brought its first cluster of graphics processing units online, marking the start of serious technical development. However, the size and capability of that compute cluster remain unknown. Despite launching Hark, Adcock is expected to continue serving as CEO of Figure AI, effectively running both companies in parallel.

Bloomberg’s report adds that Hark has already been aggressively hiring talent from across the tech industry. To date, the startup has reportedly recruited around 30 engineers from companies such as Google, Meta, and Amazon. The company is said to be aiming for a headcount of 100 engineers by the first half of the year, a rapid expansion for a firm that only recently came into existence.

Chowdhury’s move is particularly notable because it highlights how AI startups are no longer just poaching researchers and engineers, but also high-profile designers with experience shaping mass-market products. His background at Apple suggests that Hark may eventually place a strong emphasis on user-facing experiences, even if its initial work remains behind the scenes.

For now, Hark remains firmly in stealth mode. There is no public product, no website outlining its technology, and no clear timeline for what it plans to release. Still, the combination of significant personal funding, aggressive hiring, and senior talent from Apple and other tech giants indicates that this is a project being taken seriously. As competition in the AI space intensifies, Hark is emerging as yet another signal that the battle for top talent is only accelerating.