In the latest communications, the well-known Apple... Company insider Mark Gurman definitively refuted the rumor that " Apple CEO Tim Cook will retire in the first half of next year," while also revealing that OpenAI is poaching Apple employees at an astonishing pace, impacting the consumer electronics industry. The giants were very unhappy.
As background, about two weeks ago, an "insider" revealed that Apple was "speeding up" the arrangements for the CEO handover, and stated that 65-year-old Cook would resign between the end of January next year (after the next financial report is released) and the annual developer conference in June next year.
In response, Gurman stated bluntly that, based on information he has gathered in recent weeks, Cook is unlikely to leave before June next year. In fact, he would be shocked if the rumor were true. Furthermore, regarding some viewing this as Apple releasing a "test balloon" to allow Wall Street to prepare, Gurman stated that this is not the case, and the report was simply false.
Gurman added that John Tenus, senior vice president of hardware engineering, is indeed at the heart of discussions regarding his potential succession to Cook , for a simple reason: at 50 years old, Tenus is the youngest member of Apple's executive team and has the longest potential tenure. Furthermore, Tenus is at the core of new device development and enjoys high regard from Cook.
Therefore, a well-known insider concluded that this moment will not arrive anytime soon unless an unexpected event forces Cook to resign prematurely. That said, the shake-up within Apple's executive team will continue; Johnny Srouji, who heads the chip business, is evaluating his future with the company, and Apple is also looking for new artificial intelligence. Person in charge.
Apple hardware engineers are flocking to OpenAI.
In contrast to its long-term stable senior management team, Apple's hardware engineering team is currently experiencing a wave of OpenAI offers.
As part of its "AI narrative," OpenAI, after acquiring io, the design firm founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, is striving to release its first AI hardware in 2026. Recent leaks also suggest that OpenAI's hardware ambitions are primarily being realized by poaching talent from Apple.
Gurman revealed that OpenAI's hardware team has hired more than 40 people in the past month alone, many of whom came from Apple's hardware engineering team. Among the Apple employees poached were key executives (very senior positions), as well as department managers and engineers. Their areas of expertise were also quite diverse, including camera engineering, iPhone hardware, Mac hardware, chips, device testing and reliability, industrial design, manufacturing, audio, smartwatches, Vision Pro, software, and ergonomics . In other words, OpenAI is absorbing talent from almost every relevant Apple department.
Undoubtedly, Apple is very dissatisfied with OpenAI's "sweeping poaching" of talent, and some within the company have even raised it to the level of a "problem".
Of course, the problem isn't just OpenAI poaching talent. Last week, news also broke that Abidul Chaudhry, the iPhone Air designer and a rising star on Apple's industrial design team, had left Apple to join an artificial intelligence startup.
Gurman lamented that this series of departures reflects Apple's current difficulty in retaining key entry-level talent . There was a time when employees were willing to accept lower pay to work at Apple, but that's no longer the prevailing view.
(Article source: CLS)
