Competition in silicon valley is getting tough with tech giants scrambling to gain and retain talented employees. In its latest effort to achieve the same, Apple has issued unusual and significant stock bonuses to some of its employees.

According to a Bloomberg report, Apple is providing some hefty bonuses to select engineers in order to prevent them from leaving for competitor companies like Meta (formerly known as Facebook). According to the report, select engineers from silicon design, hardware, and software development, and operations were informed that they would be receiving a stock bonus which ranged from $50000 to $180,000.

Most engineers received stock worth $80,000 to $120,000, but the bonus isn’t a no-strings-attached reward as it comes in the form of restricted stock units that are set to vest over the course of four years provided the employees stay with Apple and do not take jobs at other companies.

The Bloomberg report further reads that “The payouts aren’t part of normal Apple compensation packages, which include a base salary, stock units and a cash bonus. Apple sometimes awards additional cash bonuses to employees, but the size of the latest stock grants were atypical and surprisingly timed, the people said. They were given to about 10% to 20% of engineers in applicable divisions.”

The Cupertino company has informed its managers that these bonuses could be provided to engineers as a bonus payout for high performance. After losing more than 100 employees to Meta in the last few months, the move comes as a preventative measure to keep the tech giant from conceding any more ground to Meta ahead of their AR headset launch.

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