OpenAI hired high-profile researcher Ruoming Pang, formerly of Meta and Apple
Pang led AI infrastructure at Meta’s Superintelligence Labs for approximately seven months
OpenAI aggressively pursued Pang for several months, eventually securing him in late February 2026
AI start-up OpenAI hired Meta’s AI researcher Ruoming Pang a week ago, The Information reported. The move comes months after Meta had reportedly poached Pang from Apple, where he served as head of AI models.
At Meta, Pang led AI infrastructure at the company’s Superintelligence Labs, a division created to develop new and competitive AI models.
3 February 2026
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As per The Information’s report, Pang was pursued aggressively for the role by OpenAI over several months. Before his exit, Pang reportedly told colleagues that he was happy at Meta and that its infrastructure was in good shape.
Pang Poached for Meta’s Superintelligence Unit
In July 2025, Meta hired Ruoming Pang with a pay package reportedly worth more than $200 million over several years, contingent on meeting specific milestones.
Pang was recruited for his expertise in developing small, on-device AI models. He joined a roster of AI leaders assembled by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, including experts from Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and Safe Superintelligence.
His hiring came as Meta reorganised its AI efforts under a new division and appointed Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI, as Chief AI Officer.
Meta significantly ramped up its AI investments last year, committing billions of dollars, including a reported $29 billion investment in Scale AI. Zuckerberg was personally involved in recruiting top AI talent, often hosting potential hires at his homes in Silicon Valley and Lake Tahoe.
In addition to Pang, Meta also hired Daniel Gross, co-founder of Safe Superintelligence; Nat Friedman, former CEO of GitHub; Yuanzhi Li from OpenAI; and Anton Bakhtin, who previously worked on Claude at Anthropic.
Before joining Meta, Pang had joined Apple in 2021 from Alphabet, where he led the team responsible for Apple’s foundation models powering Apple Intelligence and other AI capabilities.
Poaching Spree in AI
Pang’s move to OpenAI reportedly follows a wave of departures from Meta’s AI teams over the past year, even as Meta has simultaneously hired several researchers and engineers from OpenAI and other rival AI firms.
Mat Velloso, who led product development for developer platforms at Meta Superintelligence Labs also left after a brief stint. He had joined Meta’s AI organisation from Google DeepMind in July and announced his departure on LinkedIn last week.
In addition, Yann LeCun, Meta’s longtime chief AI scientist, departed from the company last year.
