According to Bloomberg, Apple lost its fourth artificial intelligence researcher within a month and transferred to Meta Platforms (mother company like Facebook). According to the source, Zhang Bowen, a key multi-modular AI researcher for Apple, left his post on 25 July and plans to join the super-AI team recently established by Meta. Zhang Boven previously belonged to the Apple Foundation Model Team (AFM), which was responsible for building the core technology behind the AppleAi platform.
Bloomberg had previously reported that Meta had dug up the team leader, Ponyo, under a pay programme worth over $200 million. Two other researchers of the team, Tom Gunter and Mark Lee, also joined Meta recently. The AFM team consists of dozens of engineers and researchers based in Cubitino, California, and New York.
According to the source, apples have been making small payments to members of the AFM team, whether or not they had threatened to leave their jobs, in response to the digging of Meta and other companies. Nevertheless, the level of remuneration for apples is far from equal to that of competitors.
Apple stock prices fell by 1.5 per cent to $210.82 at a time when New York was trading, touching the middle and low point. As at 28 July, the company ‘ s share price had accumulated a 15 per cent decline prior to 2025.
The successive departure of the core staff was a disruption to the Apple ‘ s base model team. Pompousum played a central role in the development of the road map and the direction of research in the sector, and a number of people within AFM are now saying that their future direction is unclear. According to informed sources, additional engineers are actively interviewing outside jobs. Another team member, Floris Weers, left in recent weeks to join a start-up company.
The AFM team is critical to the broader AI strategy of Apple. The team’s work supports the Apple Intelligence platform launched in 2024. Today, however, companies are considering moving towards greater use of third-party models.