Sources: Samsung is combining its AI-focused research centers in Toronto and Mountain View to improve operations; ex-Apple exec Murat Akbacak will run the group
- Company is combining Toronto and California research centers — Apple's Murat Akbacak will be leading the new division
Context & Ripple Effects
Samsung is consolidating two AI research sites under Murat Akbacak, an executive previously at Apple. The move echoes Apple’s earlier combination of its machine-learning, AI and Siri teams under a single leader, making organizational coordination—not simply lab expansion—the central development.
The appointment also puts Samsung in the competition for senior AI operators with experience inside major consumer-device ecosystems. Apple’s acquisition of DarwinAI for smaller, faster AI systems shows why research organization can matter directly to how AI work is translated into products.
First-order effects
- Samsung’s Toronto and Mountain View AI teams will report through one combined group led by Akbacak, changing their management structure and operational coordination.
- Akbacak becomes Samsung’s named senior owner for the merged research operation, while the two centers lose separate organizational status.
Second-order effects
- A single research organization can reduce duplicated work and give Samsung a clearer route for prioritizing AI projects across the two locations; the practical gains depend on how tightly the group is connected to product and engineering teams.
- The hire increases pressure on rival device makers to retain AI leaders who can bridge research and product execution, rather than treating AI labs as isolated units.
Third-order effects
- If similar consolidations continue, consumer-electronics companies may increasingly organize AI around centralized leadership and product-facing execution rather than geographically independent research centers.
- This is part of a broader contest for AI talent with hardware and platform experience, where organizational design becomes a competitive capability alongside models and chips.
The trend: Device makers are centralizing AI research and recruiting cross-functional leadership to turn dispersed technical work into product execution.