Apple Gives iPhone Designers Bonuses Up to $400K to Counter OpenAI Poaching
Key summary
Apple granted RSU bonuses, bonuses were granted as restricted stock units that vest over four years.
RSU awards awarded RSU values can range from $200,000 to $400,000, individual awards can range from $200,000 to $400,000 or more depending on Apple stock performance.
Apple iPhone Product Design team provided bonuses to deter external hiring, bonuses aimed to keep iPhone Product Design team members from being poached by other companies.
Apple executives expressed concern about employee departures to competitors, executives were concerned about engineers leaving for rivals such as OpenAI.
OpenAI hired multiple former Apple employees including design leaders, several former Apple designers, including Jony Ive, are working on hardware at OpenAI and OpenAI has hired over 40 former Apple employees.
