Co-founder Barret Zoph leaves Thinking Machines and returns to OpenAI

Thinking Machines Lab

CTO and co-founder Barret Zoph left Thinking Machines Lab and returned to OpenAI along with co-founder Luke Metz and researcher Sam Schoenholz. OpenAI's Fidji Simo said the move had been in the works for weeks. Soumith Chintala was named new CTO. Reports later said Zoph had been fired. This departure occurred less than a year after the startup's founding.

• Barret Zoph (CTO), Luke Metz and Sam Schoenholz departed to rejoin OpenAI; Soumith Chintala named new CTO
• Occurred less than a year after Thinking Machines Lab founding; OpenAI stated arrangement had been in works for weeks
• Later reports suggested Zoph was fired rather than voluntarily departed; company had previously lost co-founder Andrew Tulloch to Meta
• Significant loss of leadership talent for startup competing in frontier AI development