September is here and with it, a major change for Silicon Valley as Tim Cook steps down as Apple CEO and John Ternus steps up.
Major tech CEOs, including Elon Musk and Lisa Su of AMD congratulated Ternus on Tuesday as he stepped into the role, but one investor took the opportunity to lay out what he sees as the first order of business for the new top exec.
Veteran tech investor Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management says Ternus needs to focus first on talent at the iPhone maker.
“Welcome John Ternus to your new role as CEO,” Munster wrote on X. “Your first priority: reverse the brain drain.”
Munster highlighted a concern in Silicon Valley recently that the escalating talent war between AI startups and the sector’s old guard is a threat to companies like Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia. Specifically, Munster pointed to OpenAI’s efforts to woo Apple top workers.
The Chat GPT maker jabbed the iPhone maker for losing 400 employees to it in recent years, hitting back at a trade secrets lawsuit Apple filed and stating that “Apple cannot stop the next 400 employees from leaving by filing baseless lawsuits.”
“AI is moving much faster than the smartphone era did,” Munster said. “The biggest long-term risk for Apple is losing control of the interface between consumers and AI.”
A longtime Apple stock bull, Munster isn’t overly concerned about the threat posed by OpenAI. Yet, he still says that Ternus should focus on building out Apple’s talent roster to ensure the company maintains its position as a big tech leader.
Apple should be more focused on recruiting and retaining top talent, as OpenAI isn’t likely to be able to build better technology too quickly, especially as the economics favor Apple for now, he said.
“It’s easy for OpenAI to design one or two consumer devices,” he noted. “The difficult part is designing, manufacturing, and distributing a family of devices and services (iPhone, Mac, Watch, AirPods, Apple TV) at a price point that consumers can afford.”
Want more Business Insider in your news feed?
Add BI in Google so our reporting is easier to find when you’re searching for what matters.