For decades, personnel changes have never been so turbulent! Apple experiences a wave of executive departures, and Cook's whereabouts are under close scrutiny

As a long-standing stable model in Silicon Valley, Apple is experiencing the largest personnel upheaval in decades, with intensive departures from senior management to key engineers breaking the original power structure and talent foundation of this tech giant.

According to Bloomberg, Johny Srouji, one of Apple's most respected executives and senior vice president of hardware technology responsible for chip business, has discussed leaving the company with CEO Tim Cook and is seriously considering departing in the near future. Just a week prior, Apple's head of artificial intelligence and head of interface design left in succession, and the general counsel and head of government affairs also announced their upcoming retirement. This series of changes indicates a rare wave of turnover among executives reporting directly to Cook.

This wave of departures has raised deep concerns in the market about Apple's "brain drain," especially at a critical moment when the company urgently needs to catch up with competitors in the field of artificial intelligence. A large number of top AI talents are flowing to Meta, OpenAI, and various startups, and this talent loss may further hinder Apple's pace in the generative AI era, as the company has not yet established a significant advantage in this field.

For Tim Cook, who just turned 65, this constitutes one of the most turbulent periods of his tenure. Although Cook himself is unlikely to leave immediately, he not only needs to strengthen compensation packages to retain key talents but must also reshape the management hierarchy and establish new succession paths against the backdrop of senior executives collectively facing retirement and intensified external competition.

Core Executive Loss and Uncertainty Over Chip Supervisor's Future

Currently, the most pressing risk within Apple is the potential departure of chip supervisor Johny Srouji. Srouji is the chief architect of Apple's self-developed chip strategy, which is seen as a moat of Apple's core competitiveness. Media reports citing insiders reveal that Srouji has informed colleagues that if he ultimately decides to leave, he intends to join another company.

To retain this key figure, Cook is taking proactive measures, including offering generous compensation packages and discussing the possibility of giving him more responsibilities in the future. One proposal circulating internally is to promote him to Chief Technology Officer (CTO), overseeing hardware engineering and chip technology, which would make him the second most powerful executive at Apple after the CEO.

However, this change faces complex internal dynamics. Establishing a CTO position may require the current head of hardware engineering, John Ternus, to be promoted to CEO, but the company may not be ready to take that step yet. Additionally, some internal voices suggest that even with a title upgrade, Srouji may not be willing to work under a new CEO other than Cook. If Srouji ultimately leaves, Apple may promote his deputy Zongjian Chen or Sribalan Santhanam to take over.

In addition to Srouji's uncertain future, Apple's senior management is already undergoing a "blood change." Apple's long-time number two, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, retired last month. General Counsel Kate Adams will retire by the end of 2026, with her successor being Jennifer Newstead, who was just poached from Meta Former Obama administration official Lisa Jackson, who was responsible for environmental and policy affairs, is also set to retire.

AI Talent Drain: Aggressive Poaching by Competitors

Amidst the turmoil in management, the loss of engineering talent is also raising alarms for investors, especially in the field of artificial intelligence. The departure of Apple's former AI chief John Giannandrea is not without controversy, as the Apple Intelligence platform he led faced delays and underwhelming performance, with the much-anticipated upgrade to the Siri voice assistant arriving about a year and a half late. Reports indicate that Apple began gradually stripping Giannandrea of his responsibilities as early as March this year, although he was kept on until next spring to avoid publicly acknowledging the severity of the issues.

More critically, competitors like Meta and OpenAI are aggressively poaching Apple's top engineers with lucrative compensation packages. Key technical personnel such as Ruoming Pang, head of AI models at Apple, as well as Jian Zhang (head of AI robotics software), Tom Gunter, and Frank Chu have all moved to Meta. Additionally, Robby Walker, who was responsible for the ChatGPT-style search experience, left in October, and his successor Ke Yang switched to Meta's new superintelligence lab just weeks after taking over.

The design field has also been severely impacted. Senior executive Alan Dye, who was responsible for software design, has left to join Meta's Reality Labs, taking with him top interface leader Billy Sorrentino. This "defection" is particularly noteworthy. Meanwhile, the company founded by former Apple star designer Jony Ive has been acquired by OpenAI, and Ive is collaborating with OpenAI to develop new AI devices, having poached dozens of engineers from Apple involved in various fields including iPhone, Mac, camera, and display technology.

Accelerated Succession Planning and Restructuring of Power Dynamics

With a series of senior executives leaving or nearing retirement, Apple's power structure is being reshaped.

More power is shifting to a new generation of core leaders led by John Ternus, with other executives gaining more influence including services chief Eddy Cue, software chief Craig Federighi, and newly appointed COO Sabih Khan. Among them, 50-year-old Ternus is viewed by internal employees as the top candidate to succeed Cook as CEO, and he will play a significant role in next year's celebration of Apple's 50th anniversary, having taken over businesses seen as future growth engines, such as robotics and smart glasses.

Tim Cook's own future is also a topic of great interest. Cook just turned 65 last month, which is a traditional retirement age for many executives. Although there are rumors that Cook showed signs of hand tremors during meetings, raising health speculations, those close to him have denied this claim and insist that even if Cook steps down as CEO, he is very likely to take on the role of chairman, maintaining a high level of influence over the company Apple is currently facing a personnel crisis that reflects a profound demographic reality: many top executives are of similar age and are nearing retirement. To address talent loss, Apple's human resources department has been instructed to intensify recruitment and retention efforts. However, in the context of not launching a major successful new product category in the past decade, and facing more agile competitors who have made earlier moves in the AI field, Apple's task of rebuilding its talent pipeline and stabilizing its position appears particularly challenging