After being dug into the wall by Xiao Za and nearly 100 engineers jumped ship, Apple rarely issued huge bonuses: up to 1.15 million yuan

Per editor: Sun Zhicheng, Yi Qijiang

In the era when the meta-universe exploded and the field of new energy vehicles was fighting, Silicon Valley in the United States was staged a quiet "robbery war".

According to the surging news quoted by the US "Forbes" website on the 28th, in order to retain talent, Apple recently gave some engineers up to $180,000 (about 1.15 million yuan) in the form of stocks to prevent them from jumping ship to Zuckerberg's Facebook parent company Meta and other competitors.

Nearly a hundred engineers were dug up by Meta, and Apple paid stock dividends

As the "war for talent" heats up in the tech space, Apple is currently worried about whether it can retain talent. According to people familiar with the matter, Apple recently notified some engineers in the chip design, hardware, and some software and operation departments that special bonuses will be issued to them in the form of restricted shares. This "unplanned income" ranges from $50,000 to $180,000 (about 320,000 yuan to 1.15 million yuan).

Many engineers received about $80,000, $100,000 or $120,000 worth of Apple stock. It is understood that Apple and Meta are fiercely competing in the fields of augmented reality, virtual reality and smart watches, and the phenomenon of "digging corners of each other" has occurred from time to time. Meta has reportedly hired about 100 engineers from Apple in the past few months.

Apple's regular compensation package includes base salary, stock rewards and cash rewards, which are not included in this award. Apple sometimes gives extra cash prizes to employees, but this time stock rewards are uncommon and the timing is unexpected, people familiar with the matter said. About 10 to 20 percent of engineers in related departments received this award. But it also annoyed some unproductive engineers who thought the selection process was unfair.

Image source: Visual China - VCG111250

Recently, Apple's move to let employees return to the office has caused dissatisfaction among some employees and led to some engineers jumping ship. Although the deadline has been delayed, the company has adopted a more stringent system for office work than some of its tech peers.

Apple says it expects employees to work in the office at least three days a week, and hardware engineers at least four to five days. The system of Meta and other companies is relatively relaxed.

It is worth noting that recently, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, Apple has poached Andrea Schubert, Meta's arrill pry head, who is responsible for the marketing and pry of AR/VR headsets. Andrea Schubert's LinkedIn page shows that she has been working for Meta for nearly six years.

Apple has been poached by traditional car companies

The talent of Apple's self-driving car team has also jumped ship. To develop the Apple Car, Apple needs to stabilize its team while also getting professional talent from car companies like Tesla, General Motors and Ford. Therefore, Apple must ensure the stability of internal personnel while also finding ways to seek more talents.

According to the CCTV in 2019, Volkswagen announced in January of that year that it had appointed Alexander Hitzinger, a former Executive of Apple, as the director of technical development for the company's commercial vehicle division, and the appointment took effect immediately.

It is reported that Higginger was born in Germany, was responsible for Apple's electric vehicle project, and also worked at Porsche, the sports car brand of the Volkswagen Group. Prior to that, Higginger was also responsible for the development of the Formula 1 race car at Red Bull Technologies.

In recent years, Silicon Valley technology companies have been committed to developing energy-efficient autonomous vehicles, and Volkswagen will also work in this direction to gain an advantage in international competition. Hijinger will also be responsible for the development of Volkswagen's self-driving cars.

According to Reuters reported on November 26 this year, Apple's global battery development director Ahn Soonho has joined Volkswagen, according to his Linkedin information, this person will be responsible for leading the traditional automaker to develop electric vehicle batteries. Ahn this month became chief technology officer of the battery division of Volkswagen Group Components.

In 2018, Apple hired Ahn Soonho, then an executive in Samsung's SDI's next-generation battery division, and it was thought that Apple hired experts in the field of batteries to seek to reduce its reliance on external suppliers.

This is the second time in recent months that Apple auto executives have switched to traditional car companies.

On September 7, local time, according to the US media CNBC and the Financial Times, Ford Motor announced on the same day that it had hired Doug Field (Doug Field), who had served as an executive at Tesla and Apple, to lead its emerging technology development, which is the focus of the company's "Ford+" transformation plan. Before leaving, Field served as apple car project leader, and his departure means that Apple's car business has lost 4 executives this year.

The Financial Times commented that the shocking personnel change could mean the end of Apple's ambitions in the automotive sector. Apple said in a statement: "We thank Field for his contributions to Apple and wish him all the best in the future." ”

Editor| Sun Zhicheng, Wang Jiaqi, Yi Qijiang

Proofreading | Cheng Peng

Daily Economic News Integrated Central Broadcasting Network, The Paper, Financial Times, etc

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