Just four months ago, Microsoft’s AI team made headlines for hiring Amar Subramanya from Google’s Gemini team. At Google, Amar served as Vice President of Engineering for over five years. Now, Apple has hired him away from Microsoft, appointing him as its Vice President of AI.
Executives moving between companies isn’t unusual, but this case stands out. Amar joined Microsoft only recently after spending more than 16 years at Google. Upon his arrival, he was quite excited about his new role as Corporate Vice President at Microsoft AI. He even praised Microsoft’s work culture, describing it as "low-ego yet bursting with ambition."
It is widely known that Apple has been struggling to keep pace with Google, OpenAI, and others in the AI race; therefore, this leadership shift isn’t entirely surprising.
Today, Apple announced that John Giannandrea, the company’s Senior Vice President for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, will be stepping down and retiring in the spring of 2026. Amar Subramanya is not directly replacing John; instead, he has been appointed Vice President of AI and will report to Craig Federighi. In this role, Amar will lead the teams responsible for Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation.
In its press release announcing Amar’s hiring, Apple stated:
“Subramanya brings a wealth of experience to Apple, having most recently served as corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, and previously spending 16 years at Google, where he was head of engineering for Google’s Gemini Assistant prior to his departure. His deep expertise in both AI and ML research and in integrating that research into products and features will be important to Apple’s ongoing innovation and future Apple Intelligence features.”
Another notable detail in Apple’s press release is the acknowledgment that the new leadership is expected to accelerate its AI efforts, an area where the company has been lagging. It remains to be seen how Microsoft’s AI team will be affected by the sudden departure of such a high-profile hire.