Who is Amar Subramanya, the Google-Microsoft veteran set to lead Apple AI?

Apple has handed a critical leadership role to Bengaluru-born AI researcher Amar Subramanya, marking one of its biggest strategic shifts since launching Apple Intelligence last year. The longtime technologist has been appointed vice-president of artificial intelligence, taking over from John Giannandrea, who will retire in spring 2026 after advising the company through a transition period.

Apple said Subramanya will report to Craig Federighi, senior vice-president of software engineering, and lead work on Apple Foundation Models, machine learning research, and AI safety and evaluation. Parts of Giannandrea’s organisation will now move under COO Sabih Khan and services chief Eddy Cue.

CEO Tim Cook welcomed the change, saying, “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.”

Who is Amar Subramanya?

Amar Subramanya enters Apple with more than two decades of experience in machine learning and large-scale AI systems. Before joining Apple, he briefly served as corporate vice-president of AI at Microsoft, where he worked on foundation models used in Microsoft Copilot.

Prior to that, he spent 16 years at Google, rising from staff research scientist to vice-president of engineering. He later became the head of engineering for Gemini, Google’s flagship generative AI system, and worked closely with DeepMind, contributing to advanced model training and deployment.

Apple described his background as crucial for its next phase, noting, “His deep expertise in both AI and ML research and in integrating that research into products will be key to Apple’s ongoing innovation.”

Education and early career

Subramanya studied electronics and communications engineering at Bangalore University, graduating in 2001. He went on to earn a PhD in computer science from the University of Washington in 2009, specialising in semi-supervised learning and graphical models -- methods used to train AI effectively when labelled data is limited.

During his PhD, he received a Microsoft Research Graduate Fellowship in 2007 and later co-authored the book 'Graph-Based Semi-Supervised Learning' with Partha Pratim Talukdar. His research work spans natural language processing, entity resolution and speech technologies, Fortune reported.

His early career included a short stint at IBM and an internship at Microsoft in 2005 before he moved to Google.

Why the move matters for Apple

The leadership shift comes as Apple faces pressure for lagging behind competitors like Google, Microsoft and AI startups, especially in generative AI tools and voice assistants. Siri, once an early pioneer, has struggled to keep up with rival assistants and advanced copilots now integrated across devices and enterprise services, Fortune reported.

Apple has taken a slower route, focusing on privacy, on-device processing and gradual rollout of its Apple Intelligence features. With Subramanya’s arrival, the company is signalling its plan to accelerate AI development while maintaining its focus on secure and responsible AI.

In its announcement, Apple said, “This moment marks an exciting new chapter as Apple strengthens its commitment to shaping the future of AI for users everywhere.”