In the magnificent seven stock battle between Meta Platforms and Apple (AAPL), things are heating up as Meta has taken one of Apple’s top design executives. Indeed, Meta has reportedly hired Alan Dye, Apple’s top design executive and head of user interface design at the iPhone maker. Shares in both stocks ended Wednesday trading in the red, however, Apple remains the better performer on the 5-day charts.

Apple is promoting Stephen Lemay, a veteran designer at the company, to replace Dye and fill the vacated role. Apple confirmed the personnel change in an article published by Bloomberg. “Steve Lemay has played a key role in the design of every major Apple interface since 1999,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.

Meta Platforms’ stock (META) is down over 20% from recent highs, facing a setback amid fear of too much AI spending by the company. However, those fears have cooled as Wall Street experts suggest the AI bubble is more of an “air pocket”, implying a bit safer of a situation. While a poor tech stock market has sent shares down in the last 30 days, the company has seen strong growth powered by its AI investments. Therefore, now may present a decent buying opportunity sub-$700.

As for Apple (AAPL), the iPhone developer has had an up-and-down 2025, highlighted by an overall 12% gain YTD. Apple Inc. has shown strong performance recently, with a 40% gain over the past six months. That climb has even outperformed the Dow Jones index as well as other magnificent-7 tech stock rivals, including META. While losing its top design executive isn’t great, its a small droplet compared to the success that Apple has had in the last few months.