Apple AI boss exits
Apple’s top AI executive John Giannandrea is leaving the company this week after an eight‑year run, closing an internal reshuffle that removed his oversight of Siri and other AI teams earlier this year. Reports say he stayed on long enough for final stock awards to vest and will depart formally this week. ((macrumors.com), (9to5mac.com))
John Giannandrea is leaving Apple this week, ending an eight-year run as the executive who led the company’s artificial intelligence strategy. (macrumors.com) Apple hired Giannandrea in April 2018 and put him on its executive team that December as senior vice president of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Strategy. Apple said in December 2025 that he would retire in spring 2026 after serving as an adviser during the transition. (apple.com, apple.com) His exit follows a management shake-up that stripped Siri from his organization in March 2025. Bloomberg reported then that Mike Rockwell, who led Apple Vision Pro, took over Siri and began reporting to software chief Craig Federighi instead of Giannandrea. (bloomberg.com, 9to5mac.com) That change came after Apple delayed the more personalized Siri features it had previewed as part of Apple Intelligence. Rockwell then overhauled Siri’s management team in April 2025 as Apple tried to speed up work on those features. (macrumors.com, 9to5mac.com) Giannandrea had been one of Apple’s most prominent outside hires under Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook. Before Apple, he spent eight years at Google, where Apple said he led machine intelligence, research, and search teams. (apple.com) Apple said when it announced his retirement that his team was responsible for Apple Foundation Models, Search and Knowledge, Machine Learning Research, and Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure. Bloomberg later reported that former Microsoft researcher Amar Subramanya would take over as vice president of artificial intelligence, reporting to Federighi. (apple.com, bloomberg.com) MacRumors, citing Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, reported that Giannandrea stayed long enough for a final stock award to vest and will depart formally this week. That timing makes this less a sudden resignation than the last step in a leadership transition Apple began more than a year ago. (macrumors.com) His departure closes the chapter on the executive Apple brought in to modernize Siri and its broader artificial intelligence effort, but who no longer controlled the assistant by the time he left. (apple.com, bloomberg.com)
