Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, reportedly reassured his team Monday that he won’t become the next high-level exec to leave the company.
Srouji leads Apple’s internal custom chip design team, the group behind Apple silicon, the Neural Engine and several of the company’s other in-house processors. Losing him would have been a major blow to Apple’s hardware division.
Johny Srouji says he doesn’t plan to leave Apple ‘anytime soon’
With the recent high-profile exodus of key executives, Apple is facing a headline-making brain drain. News that Srouji — the man leading the team that cooks up Cupertino’s cutting-edge chips — was “considering leaving in the near future” broke Saturday, sparking panic among Apple observers.
On Monday, Srouji sought to stamp out the worrisome rumor in a memo to his underlings.
“I know you’ve been reading all kind of rumors and speculations about my future at Apple, and I feel that you need to hear from me directly,” he wrote, according to Bloomberg. “I am proud of the amazing Technologies we all build across Displays, Cameras, Sensors, Silicon, Batteries, and a very wide set of technologies, across all of Apple Products. Together we enable the best products in the world. I love my team, and I love my job at Apple, and I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.”
High-profile departures leave Apple’s C-suite in flux
Earlier this month, Meta poached Apple’s UI design chief, Alan Dye — the mind behind visionOS and the contentious Liquid Glass redesign of Apple’s latest operating systems. That followed the retirement of AI chief John Giannandrea and COO Jeff Williams.
Amidst all this, a Bloomberg report citing internal sources said Srouji recently informed Apple CEO Tim Cook that he was “seriously considering leaving in the near future.”
Apparently, Cook has been trying to retain Srouji by offering a substantial pay package and additional responsibilities. One scenario even considered making him Apple’s chief technology officer. That would make him the second-most powerful executive at the company.
Srouji’s departure would be a big blow to Apple. He has been instrumental in Apple’s successful transition from Intel to Apple silicon chips. He also led the development of the A-series chips that power every iPhone. Even Apple’s in-house C1 modem and the N1 wireless chip were built under his leadership.
Apple is going through a major leadership shuffle
Apparently, Srouji will remain at Apple. That’s positive news, because his departure would have deepened Apple’s ongoing struggle to retain key talent in a competitive AI and silicon market.
In addition to the departures mentioned above, Apple has lost several long-time executives and talented engineers to rival companies this year.
The lead designer of the iPhone Air left to join an AI startup. Likewise, more than a dozen AI researchers have departed for Meta over the past year.
There are even rumors that Cook will retire in 2026.
More departures are on the way, with several senior leaders set to retire soon.
That includes Kate Williams, Apple’s general counsel, and Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, both of whom will retire next month.
We originally published this story on December 7, 2025. We updated it with new information about Johny Srouji’s internal memo pledging to stay at Apple.
Rajesh has been writing about consumer technology for over a decade, with a strong focus on iPhones, Macs and Apple’s ecosystem. He enjoys digging into Apple software updates, hardware changes, and discovering new Mac apps that make work faster and more enjoyable.
