Former OpenAI exec Mira Murati\u2019s startup, Thinking Machines Lab, is saying goodbye to two of its co-founders, both of whom are headed back to OpenAI. Another former OpenAI staffer who went to work for Murati\u2019s startup is also headed back to the company.<\/p>\n
On social media on Wednesday, Murati announced the departure of Barret Zoph, the company\u2019s co-founder and CTO. \u201cWe have parted ways with Barret,\u201d Murati said in a post on X<\/a>. \u201cSoumith Chintala will be the new CTO of Thinking Machines. He is a brilliant and seasoned leader who has made important contributions to the AI field for over a decade, and he\u2019s been a major contributor to our team. We could not be more excited to have him take on this new responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n Murati\u2019s announcement made no mention of other departures.<\/p>\n Just 58 minutes after Murati\u2019s announcement of Zoph\u2019s departure, Fidji Simo, OpenAI\u2019s CEO of applications, announced that Zoph would be headed back to OpenAI. \u201cExcited to welcome Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz back to OpenAI! This has been in the works for several weeks, and we\u2019re thrilled to have them join the team,\u201d Simo wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n Metz is another co-founder<\/a> of Thinking Machines and previously worked for OpenAI<\/a> for a number of years on the company\u2019s technical staff. So did Schoenholz, whose LinkedIn profile<\/a> still lists him as working for Thinking Machines.<\/p>\n Zoph previously worked for OpenAI as VP of research, and before that, worked for six years at Google as a research scientist. Murati, who served as the CTO of OpenAI until September 2024, left the company<\/a> and co-founded Thinking Machines with Zoph and Metz. The startup, where Murati serves as CEO, has amassed significant financial support since then, closing a $2 billion seed round<\/a> last July, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, which led the round, as well as Accel, Nvidia, AMD, and Jane Street, among others. The round valued the company at $12 billion.<\/p>\n TechCrunch has reached out to both Thinking Machines and OpenAI for comment. Wired reports that the split between Zoph and Thinking Labs wasn\u2019t amicable<\/a>. Certainly, it\u2019s telling that Murati didn\u2019t write more in her public messaging about his departure from the company.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco While talent moves between AI giants are common in Silicon Valley, the departure of co-founders from a startup less than a year after its founding is particularly notable. The loss of two co-founders simultaneously \u2014 especially when one served as CTO \u2014 could be perceived as a particularly meaningful setback for Thinking Machines, which had assembled a high-profile team of former OpenAI, Meta, and Mistral AI researchers.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n