A spate of top applied scientist have leave Apple for Tesla and other companies over the last few months . What ’s going on ?

On Tuesday , Tesla announced that it hadhired Chris Lattneras its new Vice President of Autopilot Software . Lattner was at Apple for more than eleven years , most recentlyserving as its senior director of developer tools . Lattner is the creator of the Swift programing spoken communication , which Apple launchedback in 2014 , and which the troupe has been promote its app developers to build up Mac and iOS apps in .

As director of developer dick , Lattner was also responsible for for Xcode ( Apple ’s integrated growth surroundings , i.e. the package you apply to build apps for Apple platforms ) and the CPU and GPU compilers used within Apple and by third - company developers . In the words of John Gruber , he ’s a “ holy shit ” hire by Tesla .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

Lattner is n’t the only high - profile engineer to pass on Apple for Tesla . On Wednesday,9to5Mac reportedthat Matt Casebolt , who was a theatre director of production innovation at Apple , left the fellowship in December to bring together Tesla . Casebolt’sLinkedIn profilehas the Mac Pro , the MacBook Pro with Force Touch trackpad , MacBook Pro with Touch Bar , Retina MacBook Pro , and the MacBook Air on his curriculum vitae . He had been at Apple for more than nine geezerhood and his name is on a bit of patents .

Business InsidersuggestsCasebolt may have been on Jony I ve ’s tight - knit squad of designers and technologist , a team that typically has very low-down turnover . It would be the 2d high - visibility going from that group in recent months . In April , Danny Coster , a core member of Apple ’s design squad under I ve for over 20 class , will to join GoPro . Coster , amongst other accomplishments , was the lead decorator on the first iMac .

Another young Tesla hire from within the last month is Timothy Hatcher , who spenteleven yr at Appleon the WebKit squad . WebKit is the rendering engine that powers the Safari internet browser app on iOS and macOS and an important piece of software at Apple . Hatcher is now at Tesla as a UI locomotive engineer .

William Duplessie

At a company with more than 100,000 employees , turnover is certainly going to bechance . Still , losing longtime engine driver who by all report were not working on self-propelled software at Apple to a company like Tesla could be effort for concern . It ’s not just engine driver leaving for machine companies , either . AsThe Vergereported in November , three member of Apple ’s praseodymium team have left for car companies in the last few months .

Additionally , there are sign that not everything is rosy inside Apple . Apple reportedly cut production of the iPhone — its marquise merchandise — by ten percentfor the first quarter of 2017 . In an annualSEC filinglast hebdomad , Apple let on itsprofit and taxation fly shortof its own internal goals — the first time the company has missed since 2009 .

Apple also reportedlypivoted Project Titan — the Apple Car project — away from building a car itself and more towards software . As a result , hundreds of hardware and software technologist get out the company . Tesla , which has beenactively poachingApple employee for year , could be a natural fit . Elon Musk , Tesla ’s founder and CEO , has saidthat Tesla ’s “ design school of thought ” is “ close align ” with that of Apple .

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We ’ve reached out to Apple for comment its engine room departures and will update if we hear back .

Here is a listing of some of the high floor employees who have left Apple since January 2016 and where they have proceed , if that information is available :

Bob Kupbens , VP Apple on-line store – eBay

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Hiroki Asai , VP world-wide marketing communications

Yoky Matsuoka , Health at Apple

Danny Coster , director of intersection innovation ( penis ofJony I ve ’s industrial plan team ) – Go Pro

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Sarah O’Brien , atomic number 59 – Tesla

Colin Smith , PR – Ford

Michaela Johndrow , PR – Ford

Photo: Jae C. Hong

Chris Lattner , director of developer tool – Tesla

Matt Casebolt , director of product design – Tesla

David Erhart , conductor of dependableness engineering – Tesla

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Chester Chipperfield , special projects – Tesla

Charles Kuehmann . director of product intention – Tesla

Steve Zadesky , Project Titan ( Apple cable car ) boss

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Sal Soghoian , product managing director of mechanisation technologies

Daniel Gross , software package director- Y Combinator

Thomas Zwingman , senior staff reliability applied scientist – Tesla

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

Sankarshan Murthy , mathematical product manager , worked on Apple Watch and iPhone 5C – Tesla

Timothy Hatcher , software engineering manager on WebKit – Tesla

Teresa Brewer , atomic number 59 – SurveyMonkey

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Bart Nabbe especial projects – Faraday Future

David Finkelstein , manager of cryptographic surety – Google

Ryan Walsh , senior product for media – Floodgate

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Andrew Graham , movement detector engineer – Tesla

Brooke Michael Kain , forefront of digital selling for Apple Music and iTunes – AEG Live

Matthew Last , technology manager – Waymo

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Aaron Sigel , trough is OS security – Tesla

Now obviously , we ca n’t say for trusted what ’s rifle on , or why . possibly everything is normal and this is all a handsome conjunction . But if you know something , do get in touch:[email   protected ] .

Additional reporting by William Turton .

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