Apple to strip secret robotics unit from AI chief weeks after moving Siri

```json { "title": "Apple Strips Robotics Unit From AI Chief in Major Shake-Up", "metaDescription": "Apple moved its secret robotics team from AI chief John Giannandrea to hardware SVP John Ternus, the second major project stripped in under a month.", "content": "<h2>Apple Restructures AI Leadership, Moves Secret Robotics Unit to Hardware Division</h2><p>Apple has moved its secret robotics unit out of the control of its artificial intelligence chief John Giannandrea, reassigning the team to the company's hardware division under Senior Vice President John Ternus — marking the second major project stripped from Giannandrea's oversight in under a month, according to reporting by Bloomberg first published on April 24, 2025.</p><p>The reorganization, which followed the removal of Siri from Giannandrea's purview in March 2025, set in motion one of the most consequential leadership overhauls in Apple's recent history. By December 2025, Giannandrea had announced his retirement entirely, and Apple had named a new VP of AI to lead the company's machine learning ambitions going forward.</p><h2>The Robotics Transfer: What Happened and Why It Matters</h2><p>According to Bloomberg, as reported by Fortune and PYMNTS, Apple's robotics team — which had been operating under Giannandrea's AI organization — was relocated to the hardware engineering division led by John Ternus. Ternus, who oversees hardware engineering for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, and most other Apple products, already had jurisdiction over a separate hardware engineering team run by executives Matt Costello and Brian Lynch that had been working on robotics and smart home technologies, according to Fortune.</p><p>The robotics unit's mandate is ambitious: the team has been working to create an entirely new product category for Apple by using AI to power physical devices. According to PYMNTS, its projects have included a tabletop robot that can move an iPad-like display and a mobile robot with videoconferencing capabilities.</p><p>The tabletop device — internally nicknamed the "Pixar Lamp" — was prototyped with a 9-inch iPad-like display mounted on a thin robotic arm that can tilt up and down and rotate a full 360 degrees, according to MacRumors reporting from February 2025. By August 2025, Bloomberg reported that Apple was targeting a 2027 release for the device, which by that point was described as featuring a 7-inch iPad-like display mounted on a movable arm that can rotate and extend around six inches in any direction.</p><p>The shift of robotics under Ternus reflected a broader internal view at Apple: that successfully shipping physical products depends more on hardware engineering expertise than on AI research leadership. Ternus is widely regarded as one of CEO Tim Cook's most trusted lieutenants, and many Apple employees believe he could be the company's next CEO, according to Fortune.</p><h2>Siri, Giannandrea, and a Pattern of Reassignments</h2><p>The robotics transfer did not occur in isolation. Just weeks earlier, in March 2025, Apple had already stripped Siri — its flagship voice assistant — from Giannandrea's oversight following persistent delays to promised features. According to Bloomberg, as reported by MacDailyNews, Apple Vision Pro chief Mike Rockwell was put in charge of Siri, with Rockwell reporting to software chief Craig Federighi. That leadership change followed Apple's annual offsite meeting of senior leaders known as the "Top 100," at which the company's AI efforts were a central topic of discussion.</p><p>The Siri reorganization itself came against a difficult backdrop. According to MacRumors, in early 2025 Apple announced it would not be able to release the promised version of Siri as planned, with updates delayed until spring 2026. The Apple Intelligence platform, unveiled at WWDC 2024, had received a tepid reception, and internal frustration had reportedly mounted significantly.</p><p>According to MacDailyNews, Giannandrea lost hundreds of engineers to Ternus, Rockwell, and software chief Craig Federighi during this period, with Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly losing confidence in his ability to execute on new product development. The situation was described in stark terms internally: Apple's former head of Siri under Giannandrea, Robby Walker, called it "ugly" and "embarrassing" at an all-hands meeting, according to MacDailyNews.</p><h2>December 2025: A Full Leadership Reset</h2><p>The organizational changes that began in the spring of 2025 culminated in a formal announcement on December 1, 2025. Apple's official newsroom confirmed that John Giannandrea would step down as Senior Vice President for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, transitioning to an advisory role before retiring in spring 2026.</p><p>In his place, Apple named Amar Subramanya as the company's new VP of AI. Subramanya reports to Craig Federighi and leads Apple Foundation Models, ML research, and AI Safety and Evaluation. According to The Register, Subramanya previously served as corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft and spent 16 years at Google, including as head of engineering for Gemini — bringing significant cross-industry credentials to the role at a moment when Apple is under intense pressure to close the gap with AI competitors.</p><p>According to AppleInsider, the restructuring left Giannandrea's remaining team focused on developing Apple Foundation Models, and the new organizational structure did not change following his departure — suggesting Apple had been planning the reorganization regardless of any single individual's tenure. More than half of the foundation models team under Zhifeng Chen is reportedly from Google, with many joining in the past two to four years, according to a report from The Information cited by AppleInsider.</p><p>A Bloomberg investigation cited by TechCrunch described the internal dysfunction that preceded these changes, including weak communication between AI and marketing teams, budget misalignments, and an exodus of AI researchers to competitors including OpenAI, Google, and Meta.</p><h2>Why This Matters: Apple, Robotics, and the Race for AI Hardware</h2><p>Apple's reorganization is unfolding against a rapidly shifting competitive landscape. According to Fortune, robots represent a rapidly emerging field in Silicon Valley, with Tesla, Meta Platforms, and other major players investing billions of dollars in the category. For Apple, a company whose competitive advantage has historically depended on the tight integration of hardware and software, a robotic device powered by on-device AI represents both a natural extension of its product philosophy and a significant technical challenge.</p><p>The decision to move the robotics team under Ternus — rather than keeping it within an AI-focused organization — signals that Apple views the path to a consumer robotics product as primarily a hardware problem, one that requires the discipline and supply chain mastery that has defined the company's iPhone and Mac lines. Whether that bet pays off will likely depend on how well Ternus's hardware engineering culture can absorb and collaborate with the AI research capabilities that Subramanya is now tasked with building under Federighi.</p><p>Apple employs more than 150,000 people, according to its official newsroom, and the scale of these leadership shifts — spanning AI research, Siri, robotics, and foundation models — underscores how seriously the company's senior leadership is treating the challenge of catching up in the AI era.</p><h2>Leadership Voices: Tim Cook on Transition and Direction</h2><p>Apple CEO Tim Cook offered measured words on the leadership transitions. On Giannandrea's departure, Cook stated: <em>"We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work, helping Apple continue to innovate and enrich the lives of our users."</em></p><p>On the appointment of Subramanya, Cook said: <em>"AI has long been central to Apple's strategy, and we are pleased to welcome Amar to Craig's leadership team and to bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple."</em></p><p>Cook had originally hired Giannandrea in 2018 with a statement that emphasized Apple's values-driven approach to AI, saying at the time: <em>"Our technology must be infused with the values we all hold dear. John shares our commitment to privacy and our thoughtful approach as we make computers even smarter and more personal."</em> That framing — AI as a tool for privacy-respecting personal enrichment — remains Apple's stated philosophy, even as the personnel responsible for executing it have changed substantially.</p><h2>What Comes Next for Apple AI and Robotics</h2><p>Several near-term milestones now define Apple's AI trajectory. On the software side, a revamped version of Siri — delayed from its originally promised 2025 timeline — is now targeted for spring 2026, under Mike Rockwell's leadership and within Federighi's software organization. Whether that release delivers on the features Apple promised remains to be seen.</p><p>On the hardware side, the tabletop robot — Apple's most publicly discussed robotics project — is being targeted for a 2027 release, according to Bloomberg reporting from August 2025. The device, which Apple has prototyped as a movable-arm display unit capable of tracking users around a room, is envisioned as an AI-powered home companion. The team has also discussed a mobile, wheeled robot with videoconferencing capabilities, though no confirmed timeline exists for that product.</p><p>With Amar Subramanya now leading Apple's AI function and reporting directly to Craig Federighi, the company's AI and software organizations are more tightly integrated than they have been at any point in recent memory. Whether that integration produces the cohesion that eluded Apple during the Giannandrea era — when Bloomberg described communication breakdowns between AI and marketing teams — will be one of the defining questions for the company's product roadmap through 2026 and into 2027.</p><p>For now, Apple's robotics ambitions rest with John Ternus and a hardware engineering organization that has proven it can ship category-defining products. The question is whether a tabletop AI robot represents the next iPhone — or an expensive detour.</p><p>For more tech news, visit our <a href=\"/news\">news section</a>.</p><h2>The Productivity Angle: Why AI Hardware Leadership Shifts Matter to You</h2><p>The upheaval inside Apple's AI organization is more than a corporate reshuffling story — it is a signal about the direction of the tools that millions of people rely on every day to manage their work, health, and personal productivity. Delays to Siri's promised capabilities, the slow rollout of Apple Intelligence features, and the pivot toward AI-powered physical devices all point to a world where the line between software assistant and physical companion continues to blur. Understanding who is building these tools — and how well they are executing — helps you make smarter decisions about the technology you invest in and depend on. Join the <a href=\"/#waitlist\">Moccet waitlist</a> to stay ahead of the curve.</p>", "excerpt": "Apple moved its secret robotics unit from AI chief John Giannandrea to hardware SVP John Ternus in April 2025, marking the second major project stripped from Giannandrea in under a month following the earlier removal of Siri. The changes culminated in December 2025 with Giannandrea's retirement and the appointment of Amar Subramanya — a former Microsoft and Google AI executive — as Apple's new VP of AI. The company is now targeting a 2027 release for its tabletop 'Pixar Lamp' robot while racing to deliver a revamped Siri in 2026.", "keywords": ["Apple robotics unit", "John Giannandrea retirement", "Apple AI leadership", "Apple Siri restructure", "Apple tabletop robot 2027"], "slug": "apple-strips-robotics-unit-from-ai-chief-shake-up" } ```