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Posts tagged with "corporate"

John Giannandrea’s Retirement From Apple Announced

Today Apple announced the retirement of John Giannandrea, the company’s senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy. Giannandrea will remain at Apple as an advisor until next spring.

News of Giannandrea’s retirement was paired with an announcement that Apple has hired Amar Subramanya as vice president of AI. Subramanya, who worked at Microsoft since this past summer, previously worked at Google for 16 years on projects including the company’s Gemini Assistant. Subramanya will take the lead on Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation, while other areas of Giannandrea’s work will be inherited by Sabih Khan and Eddy Cue.

Apple CEO Tim Cook thanked Giannandrea for his tenure at the company:

We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work, helping Apple continue to innovate and enrich the lives of our users. AI has long been central to Apple’s strategy, and we are pleased to welcome Amar to Craig’s leadership team and to bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple. In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar’s joining, Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year.

Given the troubled history of Apple’s AI efforts, the retirement of Giannandrea isn’t surprising. It will be interesting to see if Subramanya settles into his new role given the frequency with which top AI talent tends to turn over in the tech industry.

Apple Announces CFO Transition→

Apple's Luca Maestri. Source: Apple.

Apple’s Luca Maestri. Source: Apple.

Apple has announced that CFO Luca Maestri will leave that position effective on January 1, 2025, but continue at Apple to lead Corporate Services. Maestri will be replaced by Kevan Parekh, Apple’s Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis, who has been at Apple for 11 years. Maestri has been Apple’s CFO for a decade.

In a press release issued by Apple, Tim Cook had this to say about Maestri and Parekh:

Luca has been an extraordinary partner in managing Apple for the long term. He has been instrumental in improving and driving the company’s financial performance, engaging with shareholders, and instilling financial discipline across every part of Apple. We’re fortunate that we will continue to benefit from the leadership and insight that have been the hallmark of his tenure at the company.

During his time as CFO, Maestri enabled essential investments and practiced robust financial discipline, which together helped the company more than double its revenue, with services revenue growing more than five times.

More details on Apple’s CFO transition are available in its press release.

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Apple Increases Planned US Investment by 20 Percent over Five Years, and Will Build a North Carolina Campus

Apple announced today that it has increased its planned investment in the US over the next five years. The company had previously set a goal in 2018 of investing $350 billion but is now planning on spending $430 billion and adding 20,000 new jobs in the US, a 20% increase over the previous goal.

At the center of Apple’s revised plans is a new campus that it will build in the Research Triangle area of Raleigh-Durham, which will create at least 3,000 jobs. The company is also setting aside $100 million to support local schools and other community initiatives.

In addition to the North Carolina campus, Apple has committed to creating 20,000 new US-based jobs over the next five years. According to the company’s press release, those jobs will be located in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington, and Iowa. Apple’s plan to spend $430 billion in the US also includes increased spending with more than 9,000 manufacturers and suppliers in all 50 states. Finally, the company plans to continue its investment in clean energy initiates across the US, including a new solar storage facility in Monterey County, California.