Sam Altman-backed Rain AI hires Apple chip veteran to lead hardware, also senior Meta engineer

Rain AI has just hired an Apple chip executive to lead its hardware engineering, marking the second high-profile hire the Sam Altman-backed AI startup has made.

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The Sam Altman-led Rain AI startup is attempting to design a new type of semiconductor for artificial intelligence (AI), securing Jean-Didier Allegrucci, a former Apple chip executive who also helped oversee the development of processors for Apple that helped the company replace the Intel CPUs inside of its Mac systems, and the A-series processors inside of the iPhone.

The former Apple chip executive will help Rain AI to develop more energy-efficient chip, where he'll work with Rain AI's new lead architect Amin Firoozshahian, who moved to AI startup after 5 years of working with Meta.

Rain AI Chief Executive Officer William Passo said in a statement: "Our novel compute-in-memory technology will help unlock the true potential of today's generative AI models, and get us one step closer to running the fastest, cheapest, and most advanced AI models anywhere".

• Read more: OpenAI founder Sam Altman is building a global network of dedicated chip fabrication plants
• Read more: Sam Altman was raising billions in funding for codename Tigris, for a new chip to rival NVIDIA

Rain AI is a new AI startup backed by OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman and Y Combinator, where the AI startup is exploring a technique called in-memory compute, which is modeled on how the human brain works, promising to save on power consumption by processing data where it's stored.

The new AI startup joins TSMC and Samsung by entering into in-memory computing research, which Bloomberg reports "still faces questions around economic viability and environmental impact. But in the long run, more efficient chips are essential to adding AI to a wider range of devices".