OpenAI recruits three staff from Thinking Machines

OpenAI has hired three staff members from Thinking Machines Lab, an AI startup led by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati.

The new hires—Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz—were part of Thinking Machines’ founding team and previously worked at OpenAI.

Zoph, who served as CTO at Thinking Machines, will now report to OpenAI executive Fidji Simo.

Thinking Machines has named Soumith Chintala as its new CTO after Zoph’s departure.

Simo told OpenAI employees in a memo that Zoph informed Murati of his intention to leave before being dismissed, and said there are no concerns about Zoph’s conduct.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Thinking Machines’ CTO exit raises execution risk at a $12 billion startup

Thinking Machines Lab raised $2 billion at a $12 billion valuation in July 2025 1, then saw CTO Barret Zoph leave within months of launch 2. Zoph is a former OpenAI VP of Research 2.
At launch the team had about 30 researchers and engineers 2, so the exit of three founders cut into its technical depth.
The company has shipped Tinker, an Application Programming Interface for fine-tuning language models 2. In July 2025, Murati said the group would share work in the next couple months, including a large open-source release 1.
Bloomberg later covered funding talks near a $50 billion valuation 3. The field includes OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind, which have products and research at scale 1.

OpenAI rehiring creates openings for rival labs

OpenAI has rehired alumni such as Zoph, Metz and Schoenholz. That pattern lets AI companies pitch roles as short tours before a return.
Thinking Machines pays base salaries of $450,000 to $500,000 for several technical roles 4, which sets a reference point for mid-sized labs recruiting against OpenAI and well-funded startups.
CTO Soumith Chintala leads the technical group 2. The roster draws from Meta and Google plus Mistral, a French AI model startup 2 5. That pool looks reachable to rivals as products ship in the months after July 2025 1 2.