AI Daily: Meta poaches Apple’s top AI models executive

Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:

MORE POACHING BY META: Ruoming Pang, Apple’s (AAPL) lead executive overseeing AI models, is departing the iPhone maker for Meta (META), Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Pang, who joined Apple from Alphabet (GOOGL) in 2021, represents the latest major hire for the Facebook parent’s new superintelligence team, the author notes.

NEW AI TRAINING: The American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest U.S. teachers’ union, said it will start an AI training hub for educators with $23M in funding from Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic, Natasha Singer of The New York Times reports. The union said it intends to open the National Academy for AI Instruction in New York City, with hands-on workshops for teachers this fall.

MOVING TO THE SIDELINES: Stifel analyst Ruben Roy downgraded CoreWeave (CRWV) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $115, up from $75. While positive on the longer-term benefits from the company’s acquisition of Core Scientific (CORZ), it sees “key near-term overhangs” for CoreWeave to get through. The re-positioning of the company as a vertical data center provider changes the valuation structure, the analyst tells investors in a research note. As such, Stifel views the shares as fairly valued.

Mizuho also downgraded CoreWeave to Neutral from Outperform with a price target of $150, up from $70. The firm believes the company’s acquisition of Core Scientific brings additional financing flexibility and expanded internal expertise, which builds upon an “already powerful partnership.” However, Mizuho also acknowledges that CoreWeave’s “extremely high volatile” presents risks to both the upside and downside. It views the stock as fairly valued at current levels with risks around.