Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab, faces a shake-up as one of its co-founders departs to join Meta.
AI researcher Andrew Tulloch informed Thinking Machines Lab employees on Friday that he would be leaving the company, The Wall Street Journal reported. A spokesperson for the startup confirmed Tulloch’s exit to the publication, stating he “has decided to pursue a different path for personal reasons.”
She further emphasized that Tulloch’s work “has been foundational” to the company’s progress. “We’re grateful for what he helped build here and are committed to finishing what we started together,” the spokesperson added.
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly tried to acquire Murati’s fledgling AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab, according to an earlier Wall Street Journal report. After Murati declined, Zuckerberg is said to have contacted more than a dozen of the startup’s employees including Tulloch encouraging them to join Meta.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Tulloch was offered with a compensation package that could have reached $1.5 billion over six years, including hefty bonuses and exceptional stock incentives.
Meta has been actively poaching talent from competitors to accelerate its AI capabilities. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman noted that the company offered some employees $100 million in bonuses to lure them away, as Meta intensifies its push into artificial intelligence.
In response to the lukewarm reception of its Llama 4 model, Meta has been wooing leading AI researchers with some of Silicon Valley’s highest-paying packages and enticing startup deals.
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Over the summer, he brought on more than 50 specialists from firms including OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Apple, Anthropic, and xAI, with Tulloch among several former Thinking Machines employees who were approached.
Founded by Murati in February with $2 billion in backing and a team of more than 20 former OpenAI colleagues, Thinking Machines recently introduced Tinker, an API designed for fine-tuning large language models.
Meta has reorganized its AI efforts under a new Superintelligence Labs division, headed by Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang after the company acquired a 49% stake in Scale AI. The division now comprises four teams, including TBD Lab, which is developing future iterations of Meta’s Llama language model near Zuckerberg’s office.
The company aims to invest up to $72 billion this year in data centers to bolster its AI initiatives and recently rolled out an AI-powered video generator in its Meta AI app, following a similar launch by OpenAI.