The battle for talent in Silicon Valley is intensifying, with reports suggesting that OpenAI is actively hiring dozens of professionals from Apple. To attract them, the company is offering stock packages worth up to one million dollars. These efforts are said to be aimed at bringing in Apple’s seasoned design and manufacturing experts, as OpenAI gears up to launch its first consumer hardware devices.
The hiring drive is being led by Tang Tan, OpenAI’s chief hardware officer, who previously spent over twenty years at Apple working under its hardware chief, John Ternus. Reports claim Tan has been assuring candidates of “less bureaucracy and more collaboration,” which contrasts with Apple’s traditionally rigid corporate culture.
To move its hardware ambitions forward, OpenAI has also signed agreements with major Apple suppliers. Luxshare, a Chinese manufacturer that assembles iPhones and AirPods, has reportedly secured a contract to produce at least one of OpenAI’s upcoming devices. In addition, Goertek, a company that supplies Apple with components for products such as AirPods, HomePods and Apple Watches, has been approached to provide parts including speaker modules.
The products being developed are said to include a smart speaker without a display, smart glasses, a digital voice recorder and a wearable pin. OpenAI is targeting a launch window between 2026 and early 2027 for these devices.
Apple, meanwhile, is reportedly taking steps to minimise further departures. It recently cancelled an annual offsite meeting in China for its supply chain and manufacturing teams, a move speculated to keep key executives closer to Cupertino amid OpenAI’s hiring push. In the past year alone, more than two dozen Apple hardware veterans have moved to OpenAI.
Notable names among these include Cyrus Daniel Irani, recognised for designing Siri’s multicoloured waveform; Matt Theobald, who spent about twenty years on Apple’s manufacturing design; and Erik de Jong, a former senior member of the Apple Watch Hardware team.
The wave of departures highlights growing tension between Apple and OpenAI, even as the two companies remain partners, with Apple integrating OpenAI models into Siri and its Image Playground app. Should OpenAI launch its devices, it would mark one of its boldest steps yet into the consumer technology space, currently led by Apple, Samsung and Google.
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