iPhone hardware engineers allegedly get bonuses as Apple tries to prevent poaching

Keen to stop other companies from poaching its engineers, Apple has reportedly approved substantial bonuses for its iPhone hardware engineers.

Talk of an AI brain drain at Apple continues even if it is difficult to determine exactly how individual departures affect the company. Over the years, Apple has lost various engineers to rival firms like OpenAI and Meta, with some even being lured in by a massive $200 million pay package.

Equally noteworthy is the departure of Abidur Chowdhury, the industrial designer behind the iPhone Air. He left Apple to become the design lead of an AI startup, which we later learned was known as Hawk AI.

Apple has seemingly had enough of competitors poaching its employees, and has finally decided to do something about it, a new rumor suggests.

Per a pay-walled Bloomberg report on Thursday, Apple has begun approving "out-of-cycle bonuses worth several hundred thousand dollars to many members of its iPhone Product Design team."

The move was allegedly envisioned as a response to OpenAI and similar AI-themed startup companies poaching Apple engineers to build their own devices.

Churn versus brain drain

OpenAI, for instance, is working on an AI-themed necklace, which would rival Apple's allegedly planned AI pin.

While not directly related to Apple's recent employee departures, OpenAI has also acquired Products io, a company run by former Apple design chief Jony Ive. OpenAI's planned AI-themed hardware is set to debut in 2027, under the name "io."

Along with OpenAI and Meta, Apple also faces competition from Snap. A design engineer who worked on the Apple Vision Pro, for instance, left the iPhone maker for Snap, and only recently settled a lawsuit alleging he stole data from Apple before he departed the company.

In short, Apple has lost several employees to rival companies over the years. That will likely continue to happen for years to come, regardless of the bonuses the iPhone maker has allegedly approved for its hardware designers.

Churn is a natural thing in silicon valley and AppleInsider hasn't been able to find any data that suggests it is happening more frequently at Apple. If anything, the departures at Apple occur after a longer tenure than other companies usually see.

In that regard, the arguably sensationalist reporting of Apple's AI brain drain, just like the claims of alleged bonuses, is much ado about nothing. Apple also used the same strategy when it offered $180,000 bonuses to engineers in a seemingly unsuccessful 2021 effort to prevent poaching.

While bonuses might satisfy some current employees, rival companies always have the option to increase or otherwise amend their offers. Regardless, the iPhone will continue to evolve, with the first foldable model now expected to debut in late 2026.