In an effort to retain talent and to prevent defections to tech rivals – such as Facebook owner Meta Platforms – Apple has issued highly unusual and significant stock bonuses ranging from about $50,000 to $180,000 to some engineers.
The surprise bonuses are the latest tool in the talent war Apple is waging with companies in Silicon Valley and beyond, in which Meta has emerged as a particular threat after hiring about 100 engineers from Apple in the last few months.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the iPhone maker informed about the out-of-cycle bonuses, which are being issued as restricted stock units, allocated for some engineers in silicon design, hardware, and select software and operations groups.
The perk program, which isn’t public, was presented by managers as a reward for high performers as an incentive to stay with the company since the shares – in amounts of roughly $80,000, $100,000, $120,000, or as much as $180,000 in some cases- vest over four years.
The bonuses, which came as a surprise to those who received them, have ranged from about $50,000 to. Many of the engineers received amounts of roughly $80,000, $100,000, or $120,000 in shares, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the isn’t public.
However, the talent war with companies in Silicon Valley hasn’t been a one-way street since Apple has also lured away key Meta employees, indicating that the two companies are to become fierce rivals with both planning major hardware releases over the next two years.
These assumptions have only been additionally confirmed by the surprisingly timed and atypical bonuses given to about 10 to 20% of engineers in applicable divisions since Apple’s compensation packages – a base salary, stock units, and occasional additional cash bonus – are not a normal part of the payouts.
The size of the latest stock grants- the value of some of them equaled the annual stock grant given to some engineering managers- has irked some of Apple engineers who didn’t receive them and who believe the selection process was arbitrary.
Meta, on the other side, continues to dangle significant salary raises, stepping up its efforts to lure the top talents from Apple’s AR, AI, software, and hardware engineering divisions although the talent drain has also hit Apple’s other areas, including’s self-driving car team.
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