\t <\/p>\n
Aussie Andrew Tulloch (inset) turned reportedly down a billion-dollar offer from Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: Instagram \/ LinkedIn<\/p>\n
An Australian AI researcher has reportedly turned down a $1.54 billion dollar package from Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.<\/p>\n
University of Sydney graduate and Perth native Andrew Tulloch accrued a reputation as a \u2018genius\u2019 during a ten-year tenure at Meta, where he initially worked on machine learning for Facebook before eventually securing one of the company\u2019s most technical roles as a \u201cdistinguished engineer\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tulloch jumped ship to OpenAI in 2023, where he stayed for just over a year before joining the company\u2019s former chief technology officer Mira Murati to form AI research outfit Thinking Machines Lab.<\/p>\n
According to Murati, Thinking Machines has attracted at least $3.08 billion (US$2 billion) from investors and was valued at $18.53 billion (US$12 billion) in its first round of funding<\/a>.<\/p>\n Such investment, however, has also attracted the attention of Zuckerberg, who recently undertook what the Wall Street Journal<\/a> described as a \u201cfull-scale raid\u201d of employee poaching after Murati refused to sell her startup to him.<\/p>\n And Tulloch \u2013 now a co-founder and leading researcher at the startup \u2013 was Zuckerberg\u2019s \u201cchief target\u201d.<\/p>\n Zuckerberg reportedly presented the Australian engineer with an employment package worth $1.54 billion ($US1 billion).<\/p>\n People familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal when bonuses and stock performance were factored in, the package could have been worth more than $2.31 billion (US$1.5 billion) over at least six years.<\/p>\n The mammoth offer was reportedly turned down by Tulloch, while Zuckerberg\u2019s headhunting yielded fully zero hires from Thinking Machines.<\/p>\n Not an unusual offer<\/p>\n In a statement given to Information Age, a Meta spokesperson disputed that Tulloch received an offer which was worth $1.54 billion.<\/p>\n \u201cThe description of the offer is inaccurate and ridiculous,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n In 2007, Tulloch graduated Christ Church Grammar in Claremont in Western Australia with an ATAR of 99.95.<\/p>\n In 2011, he went on to achieve first class honours, a university medal in mathematics and the highest GPA in the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney.<\/p>\n Tulloch later completed a master\u2019s degree in mathematical statistics and machine learning at the UK\u2019s University of Cambridge, while Mike Vernal, a former Facebook executive who worked with Tulloch, told the Wall Street Journal the Australian researcher had become \u201cknown as an extreme genius\u201d.<\/p>\n Despite his accolades, Toby Walsh, chief scientist of the University of New South Wales AI Institute and a member of the ACS AI and Ethics committee, told Information Age Tulloch\u2019s reported offer might not be an outlier.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of \u2018acqui-hires\u2019 going on at the moment which are worth billions of dollars,\u201d said Walsh.<\/p>\n \u201cIn that sense, it\u2019s in line with much of what\u2019s happening in the industry.<\/p>\n \u201cNot to mention, Andrew is a co-founder of Thinking Machines \u2013 he could have 10 or 20 per cent equity in the company which he\u2019d have to sacrifice for the offer,\u201d said Walsh.<\/p>\n Walsh emphasised such equity could be \u201cworth billions at this point\u201d, while Zuckerberg\u2019s reported attempt to acquire Thinking Machines could have been worth between US$10 billion and US$20 billion in of itself.<\/p>\n Meta is said to be playing catchup in the AI race. Photo: Shutterstock<\/p>\n On X<\/a>, Murati said Thinking Machines was \u201cbuilding multimodal AI that works with how you naturally interact with the world\u201d and would share its first product \u201cin the next couple months\u201d.<\/p>\n Notably, Thinking Machines\u2019 website initially listed and linked to online profiles for all 39 of its founding team members, though this section of the website was quietly removed in early July.<\/p>\n Meta playing catchup<\/p>\n Speaking with Wall Street Journal, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the company was not interested in acquiring Thinking Machines.<\/p>\n Notably, Meta has poached at least ten of OpenAI\u2019s researchers<\/a>, while more than 20 OpenAI researchers followed Murati<\/a> when she launched Thinking Machines in February.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n