Tech giant Apple (AAPL) appears to be falling behind when it comes to attracting top AI talent, according to The Information. This is largely due to internal disagreements about its strategy and a lack of ambition compared to its competitors. Indeed, earlier this year, Apple’s foundation models team wanted to release its AI models as open-source in order to demonstrate its progress and get help from outside researchers. However, Apple’s software chief Craig Federighi opposed the idea because he worried that the public would see how much the models underperformed when scaled down for iPhones.
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This difference in priorities between the research and product teams basically told some researchers that Apple was not aiming to become a leader in AI development. Tensions became even more visible after Apple placed Siri and AI strategy under Federighi’s product-focused group. This led researchers on the foundation models team, which was more research-driven, to feel sidelined, especially when Apple delayed a major AI-powered Siri update to 2026 without a clear explanation. It also didn’t help that Apple considered using outside models from OpenAI or Google (GOOGL) for Siri, as this further discouraged employees who wanted to build industry-leading systems in-house.
As a result, when Ruoming Pang, who led the foundation models team, left for Meta (META) after being offered a $200 million package, other team members either followed him or began exploring opportunities at rivals, such as OpenAI and Anthropic. This is because they offer clearer missions and more aggressive research goals, rather than just incremental features like writing assistance or summarization. When also considering that Apple is unwilling to match some of the salaries being offered by other companies, it is easy to see why the company has become less attractive to elite researchers.
Is Apple a Buy or Sell Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on AAPL stock based on 13 Buys, 10 Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average AAPL price target of $227.37 per share implies 6.5% upside potential.
