Cook Snatches Food from Musk’s Mouth: Apple Takes Over AI Company Founded by Peking University Alumnus
Apple Snatches AI Startup From Musk’s Grip
Wow — Tim Cook made a swift move and grabbed Prompt AI right out from under Elon Musk’s nose. 🍿
Prompt AI, founded in 2023, specializes in computer vision (CV).
One co-founder, Tete Xiao, holds a Computer Science degree from Peking University.
According to CNBC and multiple outlets, Apple and Prompt AI are in late-stage negotiations.
Apple’s goal? Acquire Prompt AI’s core team and technical assets — not the entire company.
Ironically, Prompt AI’s executive said the other potential buyers included Musk’s xAI and Neuralink.
Musk tried both fronts, but Cook came out ahead.
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Prompt AI: Who They Are
Opening Prompt AI’s official site reveals their positioning: AI for consumer visual intelligence applications.
Headquarters: San Francisco
Core Team: Strong UC Berkeley ties
Leadership:
- Co-founder & CEO: Tete Xiao — BSc, Peking University; PhD, Artificial Intelligence, UC Berkeley
- Co-founder & CTO: Dong Huk (Seth) Park — PhD, Computer Science, UC Berkeley
- President: Trevor Darrell — Professor of EECS, UC Berkeley; Co-founder, BAIR (Berkeley AI Research Lab)
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Small But Elite
Founded: 2023
Team Size: ~11 members
Flagship Product: Seemour
A spatially aware ambient AI for home environments — enhancing home cameras with perceptual intelligence.
Core Capabilities:
- Spatial understanding
- Ambient AI — perceives scenes like humans
- Detects people, pets, objects
- Issues alerts for unusual behavior
- Generates scene descriptions in text
- Converses naturally about what’s happening in view
Upgrade Over Common Vision Tasks:
Beyond object detection/recognition, Seemour reaches the “understand + explain” level.
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Funding & Business Model
Initial Funding: ~$5M (~35.68M RMB) seed round
Business Model:
- Basic-Free: Free core features
- Advanced Subscription: Paid tier for full scene understanding, alerts, and descriptive outputs
Challenge:
Free tier attracts users, but conversion to paid is slow, making profitability difficult.
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Apple’s Acquisition Style: Acqui-Hire
Apple intends to acquire only the core team and tech assets — not the brand, full business, or user base.
This is a classic acqui-hire approach.
Similar moves have been made in tech:
- Microsoft → Inflection AI
- Amazon → Adept AI
- Meta → Scale AI
- Google → Windsurf
Reason: AI talent is scarce — faster to absorb elite teams than build from scratch.
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Strategic Fit With Apple
Likely target areas:
- Smart home
- Home/security cameras
- Visual recognition
- Computer vision integration with:
- HomeKit
- Future Apple smart devices
- Apple Vision series
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Internal Leaks From Prompt AI
MacDailyNews cites leaked audio from an executive meeting:
- Employee Compensation:
- Staff not joining Apple → lower salary compensation
- Core team encouraging staff to apply for Apple openings
- Investor Payout:
- Partial return — not full investment refund
- Seemour Shutdown:
- Service ends due to failed business model
- All user data deleted with privacy safeguards
Staff Advisory:
> If you’re looking for a new job, or explaining your job change to friends and family, absolutely do not mention Apple.
>
> Only speak about it after company approval.
Reality check — anyone following tech news probably already knows.
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References
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/10/apple-nears-deal-to-acquire-talent-tech-from-ai-startup-prompt-ai.html2
[2] https://www.promptai.co/#team
[3] https://www.linkedin.com/in/tete-xiao-ba2103120/
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Broader AI Ecosystem Context
In AI and CV, small elite teams with valuable IP are prime targets for tech giants in smart home and consumer hardware.
Not all teams are acquired. Platforms like AiToEarn官网 offer open-source global AI monetization ecosystems for:
- Content generation
- Cross-platform publishing
- Analytics
- AI模型排名
This enables publishing across major platforms such as:
- Douyin, Kwai, WeChat, Bilibili, Rednote
- Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads
- YouTube, Pinterest, X (Twitter)
Goal: Help creators efficiently generate, distribute, and monetize AI-driven work — much like Apple’s selective strategy of targeting top talent and tech for maximum impact.
