Cupertino, California Apple announced today that John Giannandrea, Apple’s senior vice president for machine learning and AI strategy, is stepping down from his position and will serve as an advisor to the company before retiring in the spring of 2026. Apple also announced that renowned AI researcher Amar Subramaniam has joined Apple as vice president of AI, reporting to Craig Federighi. Subramaniam will lead key areas including Apple Foundation models, ML research, and AI security and evaluation. The balance of Giannandrea’s organization would shift to Sabih Khan and Eddie Q joining with similar organizations.
Since joining Apple in 2018, Giannandrea has played a key role in the company’s AI and machine learning strategy, building a world-class team and leading them to develop and deploy critical AI technologies. This team is currently responsible for the Apple Foundation Model, Search and Knowledge, machine learning research, and AI infrastructure.
Subramaniam brings a ton of experience to Apple, having most recently served as corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, and previously spent 16 years at Google, where he was head of engineering for Google’s Gemini Assistant before his departure. His deep expertise in AI and ML research and integrating that research into products and features will be critical to Apple’s ongoing innovation and future Apple Intelligence features.
“We are grateful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work, which helps Apple innovate and enrich the lives of our users,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “AI has long been central to Apple’s strategy, and we are delighted to welcome Amar to Craig’s leadership team and bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple. In addition to growing his leadership team and AI responsibilities with Amar’s addition, Craig has played a key role in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year.”
These leadership steps will help Apple push the boundaries of what’s possible. With Giannandrea’s contributions as a foundation, Federighi’s extended oversight, and Subramaniam’s deep expertise guiding next-generation AI technologies, Apple is poised to accelerate its work in delivering intelligent, reliable, and deeply personalized experiences. This moment marks an exciting new chapter as Apple reinforces its commitment to shaping the future of AI for users everywhere.
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