Apple hires Yoky Matsuoka, one of the co-founders of Google's X lab and former head of technology at Nest, to work on health projects
Apple Nabs Nest's Former Head of Technology — Apple has hired famed robotics expert Yoky Matsuoka, one of the co-founders of Google's X lab and former head …
Context & Ripple Effects
In May 2016 Apple pulled Yoky Matsuoka — co-founder of Google's X lab and former head of technology at Nest — into its health projects, a marquee hire at the intersection of robotics and consumer health hardware. The tenure proved brief: by December, sources reported she had left Apple after just seven months, and within weeks she was back at Nest as CTO overseeing its long-term product roadmap (her return to Nest as CTO).
The episode sits inside a longer pattern of Apple raiding Google and Nest alumni: Dropcam founder Greg Duffy followed in early 2017 (Apple's hire of Dropcam founder Greg Duffy), Google search chief John Giannandrea arrived in 2018 to run machine learning strategy (the Giannandrea hire reporting to Tim Cook), and ex-Google scientist Samy Bengio joined a new AI unit under Giannandrea in 2021 (Bengio leading a new AI unit under Giannandrea).
First-order effects
- Apple gains a robotics and connected-health expert for its health projects, while Nest loses its former head of technology for a second time.
Second-order effects
- Nest ultimately reclaims Matsuoka as CTO, restoring the technical leadership it had lost to Apple and sharpening competition with Apple in sensor-driven consumer devices.
Third-order effects
- The revolving door between Apple, Google, and Nest points to an escalating executive talent war over AI and health expertise — and to the difficulty of retaining such hires, as Apple's short-lived Matsuoka stint foreshadowed before it built a durable ML organization under Giannandrea.
The trend: Big tech companies are increasingly recruiting one another's AI and connected-device executives to build out health and machine-learning organizations.