Meta hires Apple’s AI lead Frank Chu while pressing pause on AI team expansion

Meta

Meta has poached yet another senior artificial intelligence executive from Apple, even as it prepares to hit the brakes on hiring in its AI division, according to a Bloomberg report.

Frank Chu, who until now led Apple’s AI teams focusing on cloud infrastructure, training and search, is joining Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). According to people familiar with the move, Chu will work on MSL Infra, the division responsible for building Meta’s AI infrastructure.

Chu is not the first high-profile Apple executive to switch sides. Since July, at least half a dozen engineers and leaders have left Apple’s AI models team for Meta. The wave of exits began when Ruoming Pang, the creator of Apple’s AI models group, joined Meta with a massive pay package worth around $200 million. Several other engineers, including Tom Gunter, Mark Lee, Bowen Zhang and Yun Zhu, have followed.

Among these departures, Chu is one of the most significant because of the scale of his responsibilities at Apple. He was a close aide to Benoit Dupin, who heads Apple’s AI infrastructure, and played a key role in developing search for Siri and running large language models on Apple’s servers. His exit adds to the growing pressure on Apple, which is already facing delays in updating Siri and is reportedly considering using third-party AI models instead of relying solely on its own.

Meanwhile, Meta is trying to strike a balance. While it continues to bring in top talent like Chu, the company has told hiring managers it will temporarily pause new recruitment across MSL. Exceptions will be made only for “business critical” roles. The memo, seen by Bloomberg, said the pause is meant to “responsibly manage headcount” and align future roles with strategy, especially as Meta plans for 2026.

Still, Alexandr Wang, who oversees the entire AI division after joining from Scale AI, has said Meta is doubling down on AI. “We’re investing more and more into Meta Superintelligence Labs,” he wrote in a recent post.

The back-to-back exits from Apple show how intensely competitive the AI talent war has become — and Meta seems determined to stay ahead