Apple is handing the keys to its all-important AI strategy to Amar Subramanya, a veteran of both Google and Microsoft, in one of the company’s most consequential leadership changes since it launched Apple Intelligence last year. The longtime researcher has been appointed vice president of AI, succeeding John Giannandrea, who will step down from his role and retire in spring 2026 after serving as Apple’s AI chief since 2018.
In a company announcement, Apple said Subramanya will report to software chief Craig Federighi and take charge of “Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation,” placing him at the center of the tech underpinning future AI features across the iPhone, Mac, iPad, and Apple’s various services. Responsibilities previously overseen by Giannandrea will be redistributed under COO Sabih Khan and Eddy Cue, who runs Apple’s services division.
Subramanya comes to Apple with a résumé spanning more than two decades, having spent his education and career dedicated to machine learning and large-scale AI systems, and applying that knowledge at some of the biggest companies across Silicon Valley. Just a few months before jumping to Apple, Subramanya joined Microsoft in July to become its corporate vice president of AI, where he worked on foundation models powering products like Microsoft Copilot, the company’s AI assistant layer for productivity tools and enterprise services. He took that role after spending 16 years at Google, eventually becoming head of engineering for Gemini, Google’s AI assistant and flagship generative AI product, which is now having a moment.
