Meta has stunned Silicon Valley by offering Apple’s AI chief Ruoming Pang a $200 million package
Ruoming Pang: The Quiet Architect Behind Apple’s AI Breakthroughs
Ruoming Pang isn’t just another engineer he’s a visionary who helped shape Apple’s AI foundation. With a PhD from Princeton and prior stints at Google, Pang led Apple’s Foundation Models team, powering features like Genmoji, Priority Notifications, and on-device summarization for Siri and Mail.
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His team of over 100 engineers was central to Apple’s push into generative AI, and Pang was widely respected for balancing technical depth with product intuition. Under his leadership, Apple’s AI quietly evolved from reactive assistants to proactive, personalized experiences.
But Apple’s conservative compensation culture, where even top executives rarely breach $75 million annually, left it vulnerable. When Meta came knocking with a $200M+ multi-year package, Apple didn’t even attempt to match it.
Meta’s Superintelligence Gambit: Building an AI Empire
Meta’s offer wasn’t just generous, it was strategic. Pang joins Meta’s Superintelligence Labs, a division tasked with building AI systems that rival or surpass human cognition. His peers now include:
- Nat Friedman, former GitHub CEO
- Daniel Gross, AI startup founder
- Alexandr Wang, Scale AI co-founder and Meta’s new Chief AI Officer
Meta’s compensation structure is aggressive: a base salary, signing bonus, and performance-tied stock grants that vest over extended periods. These packages rival CEO-level pay at global banks and are designed to retain talent for years.
The company has also poached over 10 researchers from OpenAI, despite CEO Sam Altman’s public criticism of Meta’s tactics. Meta’s strategy is clear: outbid, outbuild, and outlast.
Pang’s hiring is a statement, Meta is no longer playing catch-up. It’s assembling an AI dream team to leapfrog competitors and dominate the next wave of intelligence.
Apple’s Silence, Silicon Valley’s Reckoning
Apple’s response? Silence. No counteroffer, no public statement. Internally, leadership has reportedly shifted to Zhifeng Chen, and Apple is decentralizing its AI leadership to avoid future poaching shocks.
But the damage is done. Pang’s departure exposes Apple’s rigid pay structure, which prioritizes secrecy and stability over aggressive talent retention. It also raises questions about Apple’s long-term AI strategy, can it compete without matching the firepower of Meta, OpenAI, or Google?
Meanwhile, the broader tech industry is watching compensation norms implode. Engineers once earning $300K are now fielding offers in the hundreds of millions, tied to stock performance and loyalty. The AI talent war is reshaping what “top dollar” means and who earns it.
Who is Ruoming Pang?
Ruoming Pang is a distinguished AI researcher and engineer known for his leadership in foundational model development. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, followed by a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, and later completed a PhD at Princeton University. His academic journey laid the groundwork for a career spanning Google, Apple, and now Meta, where he’s recognized for pioneering work in large-scale machine learning, natural language processing, and statistical modeling. At Apple, he led the Foundation Models team, shaping AI systems like Siri, before being recruited by Meta’s Superintelligence division in 2025.
Conclusion:
Ruoming Pang’s $200 million leap from Apple to Meta isn’t just a career move, it’s a tectonic shift in the AI landscape. As Meta builds its superintelligence empire, Apple must rethink its talent strategy or risk falling behind. The future of AI won’t just be written in code, it’ll be negotiated in contracts.
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