ROTTEN APPLE? Top execs bail on CEO Tim Cook as woked-up tech giant fumbles lead

Several of Apple's top executives have left the company, and another is signaling he may jump ship.

It took just four days for four of Apple's C-suite executives to file their resignations from the company, with three of them announcing their retirements.

'Our approach is to help advocates leading the charge for change in Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Indigenous communities.'

John Giannandrea, Apple’s head of machine learning and AI strategy, announced his retirement last week, with 9to5 Mac relaying that he will serve as an adviser before his full retirement in spring of 2026.

Jumping silicon ships

Giannandrea's departure from the company's AI department may be the canary in the coal mine and certainly points to a strategy shift moving forward. For example, several outlets, including Fortune, have repeatedly noted that Apple is fumbling and stumbling in terms of AI integration, causing employees to leave for more generous packages from competitors.

This includes design executive Alan Dye — who helped create Apple's Vision Pro headset, iPhone X, and Apple Watch — leaving the company to join Meta.

At the same time, Johny Srouji, senior vice president of hardware technologies, also allegedly told CEO Tim Cook he is considering leaving Apple. Srouji allegedly said that if he does leave, it will likely be to go work for another company.

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Retirement party

In addition to Giannandrea's retirement, Kate Adams, Apple's general counsel, and Lisa Jackson, vice president for environment, policy, and social initiatives, are also both retiring.

As reported by NBC News, Adams has been in charge of the Apple's legal team as it has faced increased litigation, particularly around the iPhone App Store.

Jackson is known for her social justice approach, advancing the company's "equity" efforts across the world — a word that was mentioned 77 times in a 2023 Racial Equity and Justice Initiative report. "Justice" appeared 107 times in the Apple document.

"Across the board, our approach is to help advocates leading the charge for change in Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Indigenous communities. Our goal is to amplify their voices, never to substitute our own," Jackson wrote in the report's foreword.

NBC News claimed Jackson's job had lost relevance under Trump's second administration, due to the lack of focus on race politics.

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AI initiative

The Guardian, among others, reported that Apple has been lagging behind others in terms of rolling out its generative AI features, predominantly those intertwined with Siri.

Apple has been promising an AI-focused upgrade to Siri for more than a year but has postponed the release due to not reaching its "high-quality bar," according to Craig Federighi, Apple’s vice president of software engineering.

Cook also said in an earnings call that the company was "making good progress on a more personalized Siri" and hopes to release it in 2026.

Amar Subramanya, Giannandrea's replacement, is expected to fill the gaps needed around AI advancement, having previously served as the corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft. He also worked at Google as the head of engineering for Google Gemini.

"Subramanya brings a wealth of experience to Apple," the company wrote in a press release. "His deep expertise in both AI and ML research and in integrating that research into products and features will be important to Apple’s ongoing innovation and future Apple Intelligence features."

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