Overview
- Bloomberg reports that Abidur Chowdhury recently departed Apple for an unnamed artificial intelligence startup, a move described as making waves internally.
- Chowdhury played a key role in developing the iPhone Air and presented a roughly two‑minute design video at Apple’s September event.
- Reporting indicates his exit is unrelated to the iPhone Air’s debut or its underwhelming sales, despite praise for the device’s design.
- The departure adds to broader talent losses across Apple’s design and AI teams, with defections to companies such as OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic.
- Following Jeff Williams’ retirement, Apple’s design organization now reports directly to CEO Tim Cook, with few designers from the Jony Ive era remaining.