Apple is reportedly giving out unusually big bonuses in the form of stock to select groups of engineers in the company, in an effort to stop some attrition that is happening to Facebook/Meta.

Maybe in gearing up to build the Metaverse, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously said would be done in new large offices in the EU, Meta is going on a hiring spree here at home as well. And a new Bloomberg report today suggests that Apple is feeling the heat, and responding by handing out bonuses of $50,000 to $180,000 in stock.

These bonuses are unusual for Apple, according to insiders, and they're out-of-cycle and limited — with a vesting schedule of four years, as an enticement to keep the engineers onboard for a while. Those getting the bonuses are "some engineers in silicon design, hardware, and select software and operations groups," according to the Bloomberg source.

And these bonuses are also unusual because the company reportedly typically only gives cash bonuses after base salary and stock options.

It's just the latest chapter in the long Silicon Valley rivalry between Apple and Facebook — and 9-to-5 Mac notes that this comes after Apple actually poached the head of PR for Oculus from Facebook/Meta, likely to deal with Apple's rumored upcoming launch of its own AR headset.

As the Daily Mail reports, Facebook/Meta has hired away about 100 engineers from Apple "in recent years."

Top image: Apple's Cupertino campus while still under construction in 2017. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images