OpenAI poaches founding members of Thinking Machines Lab in escalating AI talent battle

Prior to Simo’s post, Mira Murati told Thinking Machines staff that it had terminated Zoph’s employment due to “unethical conduct,” according to a report from tech publication Core Memory.

However, Simo said that hiring back Zoph and the others had been “in the works for several weeks.” “[Zoph] told [Murati] on Monday that he was considering leaving and she fired him today. You may have seen information from sources that Barret was fired from Thinking Machines for ‘unethical reasons.’ We do not share these concerns,” Simo reportedly told OpenAI staff in an internal memo, as per Bloomberg.

The entire episode underscores the escalating ferocity of the AI talent wars and highlights the many difficulties faced by newly formed AI research labs when competing against deep-pocketed incumbents such as OpenAI.

While the new wave of AI research labs have secured significant early stage funding, they can only offer their founding teams equity that could eventually be worth billions of dollars. In contrast, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and particularly Meta have been doling out large cash compensation packages, reportedly exceeding $100 million in some cases, to lure top AI researchers from competitors.

What is Thinking Machines Lab?

At OpenAI, Mira Murati led the development of ChatGPT and frequently appeared alongside CEO Sam Altman until her abrupt exit in 2024. Thinking Machines Lab aims to advance open research, a commitment that initially led to the founding of OpenAI which has since become more closed off with growth and influence.

In October 2025, Thinking Machines Lab, unveiled its first product aimed at helping developers easily fine-tune large language models (LLMs). Called Tinker, the API-based product allows developers to “write training loops in Python on your laptop” that run on the company’s distributed GPUs. Scheduling, resource allocation, and failure recovery is also handled by the company itself.

The startup has managed to generate a lot of interest, especially among investors. It raised $2 billion in seed funding in July 2025 at a valuation of $12 billion. The company was in talks to raise additional funding at a $50 billion valuation, according to a report by Bloomberg.

However, Thinking Machines Lab has also struggled to hold on to AI researchers. Andrew Tulloch, who was one of its cofounders, exited the startup last year to join Meta. In 2024, the social media giant poached Daniel Gross, who co-founded Safe Super Intelligence (SSI) along with Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s former chief scientist.