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Or they’re just being offered more money.

But as someone said earlier... Apple has a lot of money.

Did Apple simply not want to match or beat the offer he got from Microsoft?

I mean... if this guy was really worth it... Apple should do anything to keep him, right?

Or it could be that this guy just wanted a new challenge. He's worked at almost all the big chip companies in his career. Guys like this probably don't want to get stale in one place.

Maybe we should wait to read his memoirs. There's only so much speculation we can do in this thread.

:)
 
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Why is Apple losing everyone lately?
Could be more flexibility in work environments? Look up great resignation. It’s happening everywhere and essentially the whole US has “opened up” due to more remote opportunities. This person’s title might make full work from home difficult, but Microsoft might offer more flexibility vs Apple.
 
And yet if it really is "just about the money", nobody can really touch Apple - they literally have hundreds of billions in cash available to them.

So if these people were truly critical to the success of Apple Silicon, Apple could easily out-bid anyone else via a cash (re-)signing bonus.

Not necessarily, it depends on Apple's pay scale. Apple may choose to pay less than it's competitors.

Some companies, not necessarily Apple, will take into consideration it's size and position and think it can pay less but still attract talent because of who they are.
 
I would say it is about the money. If Apple starts a bidding war to keep a person then everyone else around that person at Apple would be looking for a raise. If the person just leaves...for Microsoft in this case...then remaining people aren't certain why the person left.
I would think it would be about money, living expenses (ca), taxes, etc...
Ms could be in Wash or Texas (no taxes), cheaper houses. lots of stuff. Ca is bitch to live in, hence the migration to Az, NM, Tx, etc
 
Why is Apple losing everyone lately?
Apple doesn’t lose anybody. Once they are initiated and part of the tribe they never leave. Apple is just sending them out into the industry to “help” the competition and see what they are up to. There are unbroken & unseen tethers that connect (almost) all former employees of Apple back to Apple in one way or another.
 
When do we expect to see Microsoft’s server chip?

Probably years and even then, it might be optimized for only certain aspects of the Azure Cloud architecture (which covers multiple different things both internal to Microsoft and external via partners who re-sell it).

Amazon, for example, has their own AWS server CPU family - Graviton - but they also continue to buy pallet-loads of x86 servers every month for their datacenters.

I would say it is about the money. If Apple starts a bidding war to keep a person then everyone else around that person at Apple would be looking for a raise. If the person just leaves...for Microsoft in this case...then remaining people aren't certain why the person left.

Well there are things like NDAs that can keep a person's benefits package private. And it can hurt Apple just as much if the remaining people presume that personnel are leaving for better packages so they try it, themselves.


Not necessarily, it depends on Apple's pay scale. Apple may choose to pay less than it's competitors. Some companies, not necessarily Apple, will take into consideration it's size and position and think it can pay less but still attract talent because of who they are.

True enough.




My point is that if these people are truly critical to Apple - as some have suggested or shown concern about in this thread and others - Apple would be unlikely to continue to try and "low ball" them at the risk of them leaving for another company.

Apple has invested billions - perhaps even tens of billions - into Apple Silicon (not just for the Mac, but for all their other products). It is critical to their continued success as a company, especially as the move to divest themselves from relying on external vendors for CPUs, GPUs, cellular modems, chipsets and other electronic components. They are not going to bat an eye at even millions in compensation for people critical to support Apple Silicon's health over the long-term.

That they are "allowing" these people to leave (in the sense that they are not offering sufficient compensation to prevent them from choosing to move on where such an offer would keep them) is, to me, a sign that these people are either not critical to support Apple Silicon's health over the long-term or that Apple's bench is deep enough that their loss, while felt and perhaps even felt deeply, is not going to seriously impact said health over the long-term.
 
But as someone said earlier... Apple has a lot of money.

Did Apple simply not want to match or beat the offer he got from Microsoft?

I mean... if this guy was really worth it... Apple should do anything to keep him, right?

That’s probably true. We never hear about the employees Apple manages to keep when recruiters for other companies come calling.
 
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As a chip/SOC architect, I get 2-3 calls a week from recruiters at all sorts of companies.

If you are a chip design person these days the market is hot. They may have just offered him a boat load of cash and interesting work.

Serious question as I barely passed software engineering at Uni, what do you do all day as a chip architect? Like what does the job consist of on a daily base. I can’t imagine you stand in front of a white board like „hmmm I guess this line should maybe go there“. How do you „design“ a chip
 
I would think it would be about money, living expenses (ca), taxes, etc...
Ms could be in Wash or Texas (no taxes), cheaper houses. lots of stuff. Ca is bitch to live in, hence the migration to Az, NM, Tx, etc


could be in North Carolina also. It is another nexus point for Microsoft custom chips for Azure.

"... Microsoft began hiring a number of former Qualcomm engineers and managers who are now working on Redmond's quantum-computing team.

..."

When Qualcomm killed off their internal custom server SoC development development team a decent chunk of that was clustered in North Carolina ( Raliegh and reaserch triangle area ).


Possible locations for this job is Redmond , Austin , Mountain View .

[ also likely the SoC for Xbox since focused on "Windows". But there could be some team location overlap. But Azure's "server problem" is not a Windows problem. ]



Possible location for this job is : Hilsboro OR , Raliegh NC, Austin TX



Possible locations for this job is : Sunnyvale CA , Redmond WA


So microsoft is a bit decentralized when it comes to where they work on SoCs.

Doesn't have to leave CA if doesn't want to. But if wants to 'bug out' , then can definitely leave.
Decent chance that the long stint at ARM previously was in Austin. TX.
 
…..Says one person with an unvalidated opinion on a random Internet discussion forum about one of the most successful tech companies in the world. Yeah…Ok.
That one really hit a nerve. There are some people who actually don't like to work at Apple, and some people leave. Anyway, are you really looking for validated opinions on a MacRumors forum?
 
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