Thinking Machines Lab\u2019s Andrew Tulloch is the latest engineer to reject Mark Zuckerberg as Meta scrambles to pull ahead in the AI race. <\/p>\n
The University of Sydney alum and Perth native was reportedly offered a compensation package worth as much as US$1.5 billion over \u201cat least six years\u201d to jump ship. <\/p>\n
Though as alluded to above, Tulloch isn\u2019t the only star player Zuckerberg and his tech empire have sought to poach\u2026<\/p>\n
If you needed any further confirmation that artificial intelligence (AI) is the future, just look at who Mark Zuckerberg is targeting for acquisition.<\/p>\n
Over the past few months, headlines have reported that the founder & CEO of Meta \u2013 parent company behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp \u2013 has been offering a king\u2019s ransom for senior engineers to join his newly-founded superintelligence lab. <\/p>\n
To the point where US$100 million per year contracts have become the norm.<\/p>\n
Zuckerberg even attempted to acquire fledgling startups like the US$12 billion Thinking Machines Lab helmed by OpenAI\u2019s former chief technology officer, Mira Murati. But when the latter respectfully declined, Meta responded by \u201claunching a full-scale raid.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the following weeks, [Zuckerberg] approached more than a dozen of Murati\u2019s roughly 50 employees to sound them out about jumping ship. His chief target: Andrew Tulloch, a leading researcher and co-founder at the startup,\u201d reveals Berber Jin and Keach Hagey of The Wall Street Journal<\/a>. <\/p>\n Here he is: the man who turned down a $1B offer over 4yrs from Meta. pic.twitter.com\/fLqVxZFWFz<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Deedy (@deedydas) August 2, 2025<\/a> <\/p>\n RELATED: From Mining Heiresses To Tech Titans, Here Are Australia\u2019s Richest People Right Now<\/a><\/p>\n As per his LinkedIn profile<\/a>, this wasn\u2019t the first time that Tulloch \u2013 the Perth-born University of Sydney graduate, and University of Cambridge alum \u2013 had crossed paths with Mark Zuckerberg.<\/p>\n The homegrown AI boffin was previously employed by Meta as a \u201cDistinguished Engineer\u201d in its nascent AI arm following a brief stint at Goldman Sachs as a strategist. After just under 12 years, he made the leap to Sam Altman\u2019s OpenAI in 2024, before the exodus with Murati a year later.<\/p>\n Jin and Hagey continue: \u201cTo peel him off, Zuckerberg dangled a billion-dollar package that could, with top bonuses and extraordinary stock performance, have been worth as much as $1.5 billion over at least six years, according to people familiar with the matter\u2026 Meta spokesman Andy Stone called the description of the offer \u2018inaccurate and ridiculous\u2019 and said that any compensation package is predicated on a stock rising.\u201d<\/p>\n In any case, neither Andrew Tulloch nor any of his colleagues were enticed by the prospect of a Kylian Mbappe-calibre payday<\/a>. And while nobody from Thinking Machines Lab has publicly clarified why, The Wall Street Journal has provided some parallel insight regarding the matter:<\/p>\n \u201cThe OpenAI researchers who have so far rebuffed Meta\u2019s advances chose to remain because they believed OpenAI was the closest to reaching artificial general intelligence, wanted to work at a smaller company, and were wary of having the fruits of their labours go toward a product that was primarily driven by advertising, according to people familiar with the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n