The latest leaks early Sunday morning reveal that Apple , which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in six months, The company is facing the most severe personnel upheaval in the "post-Jobs era": senior executives are leaving at an accelerated pace for various reasons, and poor progress in the field of AI is also causing a large number of young engineers to jump ship .
At this critical juncture, the health of Apple CEO Tim Cook has also come under intense scrutiny .
Is the next executive departure wave hitting chip managers?
Renowned Apple leaker Mark Gurman summarized that, in just the past week, Apple's artificial intelligence... The head of management and the head of interface design resigned one after another, and the company subsequently announced that the general counsel and the head of government affairs would also be leaving. These four executives all reported directly to CEO Tim Cook, marking a shift in consumer electronics... This is the first major shake-up in the company's top management in over a decade.
The reason behind this is not hard to explain: Apple's management is known for its high stability. After more than a decade of stability, these veterans are either already in their sixties or approaching that age.
Gurman also revealed that Johnny Sruggie, Apple's senior vice president of hardware technology in charge of developing its own chips, recently told Cook that he is seriously considering leaving the company in the near future . Sruggie has also told his colleagues that if he ultimately decides to leave, he plans to move to another company.
(Srugi file photo)
Srouji's importance to Apple is self-evident, and it's understood that Cook has been actively trying to retain him, including offering a substantial compensation package and considering giving him greater responsibilities in the future . This change is even linked to Cook's own next move.
Gurman stated that some senior executives within Apple had suggested promoting Srugi to Chief Technology Officer, overseeing chip and hardware engineering . This could make him Apple's "number two."
This change also has a major premise: the current leading candidate to become Apple's next CEO is John Tenus, the 50-year-old head of hardware engineering, so promoting Srugi may have to wait until after Cook hands over the reins. Gurman also stated that Apple may not yet be ready to take this step. Sources close to Cook also revealed that even though succession planning has been underway for years, he is unlikely to leave office in the short term.
Apple insiders also indicated that even with a promotion, Srougi might not be willing to work under another CEO .
Regarding recent reports that Tony Fadell, a former executive involved in the design of the iPod, has been recommended by outsiders to become Apple's CEO, Gurman stated that if Cook were to resign, he would likely become chairman and continue to wield significant influence over the iPhone manufacturer. Therefore, the company is unlikely to choose an outsider as successor, especially given Fadell's "less-than-friendly" departure.
That said, Cook, who turned 65 last month, is also facing closer scrutiny regarding his health.
Gurman revealed that Cook's hands "shake from time to time," but the cause of this tremor was not clearly explained . Reportedly, this has been increasingly discussed among Apple employees in recent months . According to sources, the tremor has been noticed by both executives and ordinary employees at meetings and large corporate events. However, people close to Cook say he is in good health and deny contrary rumors circulating in Silicon Valley.
Gurman also indicated that further adjustments to Apple's management are possible. Deirdre O'Brien, who heads retail and human resources, has worked at Apple for over 35 years, while Greg Joswiak, head of marketing, has been with the company for 40 years. Apple has promoted key deputies to these two executives in preparation for their eventual retirement. Additionally, Apple's CFO, Luca Maestri, already scaled back his responsibilities earlier this year and may retire soon.
A large number of young talents are leaving the country.
Unlike most Apple executives who retire due to age, Apple's AI chief, John Giannandria, left after a series of problems arose with the project's progress.
Gurman revealed that Apple had long anticipated Giannandria's departure, but the announcement was delayed until now because the company did not want to be interpreted as a problem if the change was made too early .
Amid the fierce competition for AI talent, Apple, hampered by its AI business, is facing a significant loss of development talent, a matter of serious concern to top management. Insiders reveal that Apple's human resources team has been instructed to intensify recruitment and retention efforts .
Among the well-known engineers, Robby Walker, who was in charge of Siri and the ChatGPT-like search experience project, just left Apple in October, and his successor, Ke Yang, also left just weeks after taking office.
According to Gurman, a "wider collapse" has occurred within Apple's AI organization, triggered by the departure of Pang Ruoming, head of AI models, who joined Meta along with colleagues such as Tom Gunter. In addition, more than a dozen other top AI researchers have also left the company.
In addition, Apple's AI robot Jian Zhang, head of the software team, has also joined Meta. The desktop hardware team, codenamed J595, is also losing talent, with some joining OpenAI. OpenAI, which collaborates with former Apple design guru Jonathan Ive on AI hardware, is one of the biggest beneficiaries of this wave of Apple departures, poaching dozens of engineers from the iPhone, Mac, camera technology, chip design, audio, watch, and Vision Pro headset teams.
(Article source: CLS)
