Meta Platforms Inc. is hiring another key Apple Inc. artificial intelligence executive, even as the social networking company prepares to slow its recruitment, according to people familiar with the matter.
Frank Chu, who has led Apple AI teams focused on cloud infrastructure, training and search, will be joining Meta Superintelligence Labs, or MSL, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Spokespeople for Apple and Meta declined to comment.
The executive is following several of his colleagues to Meta, which also hired the head of Apple’s AI models team. Chu helped manage the running of large language models on Apple cloud servers and oversaw some training of the software. And he was involved in efforts to develop search features for the Siri voice assistant and entertainment services.
Chu becomes at least the sixth Apple employee working on AI models to defect to Meta. The string of departures kicked off in July, when Ruoming Pang, who created Apple’s models team, left for a $200 million Meta pay package.
Since then, AI engineers Tom Gunter, Mark Lee, Bowen Zhang and Yun Zhu all quit for Meta. Aside from Pang, Chu marks the most significant of the departures, based on his range of responsibilities and ranking within the company. He served as a lieutenant to Benoit Dupin, Apple’s executive in charge of AI infrastructure. Dupin reports to John Giannandrea, the company’s AI strategy chief.
At Meta, Chu will work on a new team called MSL Infra that’s responsible for AI infrastructure work. Earlier this week, Meta reorganized its AI team into four sections — all under the supervision of former Scale AI head Alexandr Wang.
Even as it brings in Chu, Meta is slowing its recruitment after spending billions of dollars in recent months to build up the Superintelligence group.
“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 said in a memo this week to hiring managers that was seen by Bloomberg News.
This “will allow leadership to thoughtfully plan our 2026 headcount growth, as we work through our strategy,” according to the memo. “Alex’s staff will evaluate any business critical hires on a case by case basis.”
But Wang said in a social media post Thursday that the company is “investing more and more into Meta Superintelligence Labs.”
For Apple, the exodus has brought more upheaval to an AI effort that’s already struggling. The company has been playing catch-up with peers and delayed a high-profile update to Siri.
After an executive shake-up, the company is now considering using third-party AI models for the voice assistant — rather than its in-house technology. That development, along with Pang’s departure, sent shockwaves through Apple’s AI models team, spurring the talent drain.
