Apple rocked by executive departures, with chip chief at risk of leaving next

Apple, long the model of stability in Silicon Valley, is suddenly undergoing its biggest personnel shake-up in decades, with senior executives and key engineers both hitting the exits.

In just the past week, Apple's heads of artificial intelligence and interface design stepped down. Then the company announced that its general counsel and head of governmental affairs were leaving as well. All four executives have reported directly to chief executive officer Tim Cook, marking an exceptional level of turnover in Apple's C-suite.

And more changes are likely coming. Johny Srouji — senior vice president of hardware technologies and one of Apple's most respected executives — recently told Cook that he is seriously considering leaving in the near future, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Srouji, the architect of Apple's prized in-house chips effort, has informed colleagues that he intends to join another company if he ultimately departs.

At the same time, AI talent has been fleeing for tech rivals — with Meta Platforms Inc., OpenAI and a variety of startups poaching many of Apple's engineers. That threatens to hamper the company's efforts to catch up in artificial intelligence, an area where it's struggled to make a mark.

It all adds up to one of the most tumultuous stretches of Cook's tenure. Though the CEO himself is unlikely to leave imminently, the company has to rebuild its ranks and figure out how to thrive in the AI era.

Within the company, some of the departures are cause for deep concern — with Cook looking to stave off more with stronger compensation packages for key talent. In other cases, the exits just reflect the fact that veteran executives are nearing retirement age. Still, many of the shifts constitute a disconcerting brain drain.

While Cook maintains that Apple is working on the most innovative product lineup in its history — a slate that's expected to include foldable iPhones and iPads, smart glasses, and robots — Apple hasn't launched a successful new product category in a decade. That leaves it vulnerable to poaching from a range of nimbler rivals better equipped to develop the next generation of devices around AI.

A spokesperson for Cupertino, California-based Apple declined to comment.

The exit of Apple's AI chief, John Giannandrea, followed a number of stumbles in generative AI. The company's Apple Intelligence platform has suffered from delays and subpar features. And a highly touted overhaul to the Siri voice assistant is roughly a year and a half behind schedule. Moreover, the software will rely heavily on a partnership with Alphabet Inc.'s Google to fill the gaps in its capabilities.

Against that backdrop, Apple began phasing Giannandrea out of his role in March but is allowing him to remain until next spring.

Within Apple, employees have long expected Giannandrea to step aside — and some have expressed surprise that he's sticking around as long as he is.

But parting ways with Giannandrea sooner would have been taken as public acknowledgment of a problem, people familiar with the situation said.

Design veteran Alan Dye, meanwhile, is heading to Meta's Reality Labs unit — a remarkable defection to one of Apple's fiercest rivals.

Within a day of that news, Apple turned around and announced that it had poached one of Meta's executives. Jennifer Newstead, chief legal officer at the social networking company, will become Apple's general counsel. She helped oversee Meta's successful antitrust battle with the US Federal Trade Commission — experience that's likely to prove useful in Apple's own legal fight with the Justice Department over alleged anticompetitive practices.

Newstead is taking over for Kate Adams, who served eight years in the role and will retire in late 2026. Lisa Jackson, vice president for environment, policy and social initiatives, is retiring as well — and her duties will be divided up among other executives.

Though the news of Adams' departure was jarring — especially considering the number of Apple legal disputes currently on her plate — she's had a fairly long tenure for a general counsel at the company.

Jackson, meanwhile, was widely expected to be leaving soon. The former Obama administration official has kept a lower profile during President Donald Trump's second term, opting to dispatch deputies to handle discussions with the White House. Bloomberg News had previously reported that she was considering retirement.

These exits follow an even bigger departure. Jeff Williams, Cook's longtime No. 2, retired last month after a decade as chief operating officer. Another veteran leader, Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri, stepped into a smaller role at the start of 2025 and is likely to retire in the not-too-distant future.

The flurry of retirements reflects a demographic reality for Apple. Many of its most senior executives have been at the company for decades and are roughly the same age — either in their 60s or nearing it.

Cook turned 65 last month, fueling speculation that he would join the exodus. People close to the executive have said that he's unlikely to leave soon, though succession planning has been underway for years. John Ternus, Apple's 50-year-old hardware engineering chief, is considered by employees to be the frontrunner CEO candidate.

When Cook does step down, he's likely to shift into the chairman job and maintain a high level of influence over the iPhone maker. That makes it unlikely that Apple will select an outsider as the next CEO, even as executives like Nest Labs founder Tony Fadell are being pushed as candidates by people outside the company. Though Fadell helped invent Apple's iconic iPod, he left the tech giant 15 years ago on less-than-friendly terms.

For now, Cook remains active at Apple and travels extensively on behalf of the company. However, the executive does have an unexplained tremor that causes his hands to shake from time to time — something that's been discussed among Apple employees in recent months.

The shaking has been noticed by both executives and rank-and-file staff during meetings and large company gatherings, according to people familiar with the matter. But people close to Cook say he is healthy and refute rumors to the contrary that have circulated in Silicon Valley.

A more imminent risk is the departure of Srouji, the chip chief. Cook has been working aggressively to retain him — an effort that included offering a substantial pay package and the potential of more responsibility down the road. One scenario floated internally by some executives involves elevating him into the role of chief technology officer. Such a job — overseeing a wide swath of both hardware engineering and silicon technologies — would potentially make him Apple's second-most-powerful executive.

But that change would likely require Ternus to be promoted to CEO, a step the company may not be ready to take. And some within Apple have said that Srouji would prefer not to work under a different CEO, even with an expanded title.

If Srouji does depart, which isn't yet a certainty, the company would likely tap one of his two top lieutenants — Zongjian Chen or Sribalan Santhanam — to replace him.

The recent shifts are already reshaping Apple's power structure. More authority is now flowing to a quartet of executives: Ternus, services chief Eddy Cue, software head Craig Federighi and new COO Sabih Khan. Apple's AI efforts have been redistributed across its leadership, with Federighi becoming the company's de facto AI chief.

Ternus is also poised to take a starring role next year in the celebration of Apple's 50th anniversary, further raising his profile. And he's been given more responsibility over robotics and smart glasses — two areas seen as future growth drivers.

Further reorganization is likely. Deirdre O'Brien, head of retail and human resources, has been with Apple for more than 35 years, while marketing chief Greg Joswiak has spent four decades at the company. Apple has elevated the key lieutenants under both executives, preparing for their eventual retirements.

At the same time, Apple is contending with a talent drain in its engineering ranks. This has become a serious concern for the executive team, and Apple's human resources organization has been instructed to ramp up recruitment and retention efforts, people familiar with the situation said.

Robby Walker, who had overseen Siri and an initiative to build a ChatGPT-like search experience, left the company in October. His replacement, Ke Yang, departed after only weeks in the job, joining Meta's new Superintelligence Labs.

To help fill the void left by Giannandrea, Apple hired Google and Microsoft Corp. alum Amar Subramanya as vice president of artificial intelligence. He'll report to Federighi, the software chief.

But there's been a broader collapse within Apple's artificial intelligence organization, spurred by the departure of AI models chief Ruoming Pang. Pang, along with colleagues such as Tom Gunter and Frank Chu, went to Meta, which has used eye-popping compensation packages to lure talent.

Roughly a dozen other top AI researchers have left the organization, which is suffering from low morale. The company's increasing use of external AI technology, such as Google's Gemini, has been a particular concern for employees working on large language models.

Apple's AI robotics software team has also seen widespread departures, including its leader Jian Zhang, who likewise joined Meta. That group is tasked with creating underlying technology for products such as a tabletop robot and a mobile bot.

The hardware team for the tabletop device, code-named J595, has been bleeding talent too — with some headed to OpenAI. Dye also was a key figure overseeing that product's software design.

The user interface organization has been hit as well, with several team members leaving between 2023 and this year. That attrition culminated in Dye's exit, which stemmed partly from a desire to integrate AI more deeply into products and a feeling that Apple hasn't been keeping pace in the area. Another top interface leader under Dye, Billy Sorrentino, also left for Meta.

The hardware side of the design group — the team responsible for the physical look and feel of Apple's products — has been nearly wiped out over the last half-decade. Many staffers followed former design chief Jony Ive to his studio, LoveFrom, or went to other companies.

Longtime interface designer Stephen Lemay is now stepping in as Dye's replacement. Cook is also taking on more responsibility for overseeing design, a role that had been held by Williams.

Despite the turmoil, there's enthusiasm within Apple about Lemay taking Dye's old role. He's a well-liked designer who worked his way up the ranks over two decades.

Ive, a visionary designer who helped create the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, is now working with OpenAI to develop a new generation of AI-enhanced devices. That company acquired Ive's startup, io, for more than $6 billion to jump-start its hardware business — setting its sights on Apple's territory.

Like Meta, OpenAI has become a key beneficiary of Apple's talent flight. The San Francisco-based company has hired dozens of Apple engineers across a wide range of fields, including people working on the iPhone, Mac, camera technology, silicon design, audio, watches and the Vision Pro headset.

In a previously unreported development, the AI company is hiring Apple's Cheng Chen, a senior director in charge of display technologies. His purview included the optics that go into the Vision Pro headset. OpenAI recruited Tang Tan, one of Apple's top hardware engineering executives, two years ago.

There have been other high-profile departures. Abidur Chowdhury, who narrated Apple's unveiling of the iPhone Air in September, left for an AI startup. He was an up-and-comer at Apple, and the move surprised colleagues.

And over the summer, the company lost the dean of Apple University, the internal program designed to preserve the company's culture and practices after the passing of cofounder Steve Jobs. Richard Locke, who spent nearly three years at Apple, left to become dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's business school.

Source: EconomicTimes
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