Will Microsoft's Engineering VP Moving to Apple Impact Tech?

Amar Subramanya has joined Apple from Microsoft.

The move from one tech giant to another marks a key moment in Apple’s AI evolution. 

Formerly Corporate Vice President of AI at Microsoft, Amar joins Apple as Vice President of AI, reporting to Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering. 

His appointment comes as John Giannandrea, Apple’s veteran SVP for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, prepares to retire in 2026 after advising the company through the leadership transition.

At Apple, Amar will lead work on Apple Foundation Models, ML research and AI safety – functions that sit at the core of Apple’s expanding AI ecosystem. 

His background includes leading engineering for Google’s Gemini Assistant and spearheading large-scale AI deployments at Microsoft.

This positions him to accelerate Apple’s efforts to integrate advanced models into its devices and services while maintaining Apple’s emphasis on privacy, performance and seamless user experience.

The restructure also strengthens Craig’s role, uniting AI and software engineering under one umbrella and bringing tighter alignment between platform integration, client-side AI and server-assisted inference.

These changes are expected to influence how Apple Intelligence features interact with cloud infrastructure and on-device systems.

Amar’s expertise in distributed processing and low-latency model performance could shape how Apple optimises AI-driven features that depend on real-time connectivity – such as Siri, predictive input and personalised recommendations. 

For networks and telecom stakeholders, the move underscores Apple’s intent to deepen the link between AI capability, device performance and connected service delivery.