Meta Hires Five Thinking Machines Lab Founders Including Reported $1.5 Billion Engineer

Meta has hired five founding members of Thinking Machines Lab, an AI startup built by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati that raised $2 billion at a $12 billion valuation in July 2025. The hires include Andrew Tulloch, who joined Meta in October with a compensation package reportedly worth $1.5 billion over six years, potentially the most expensive individual talent acquisition in tech history. Meta pivoted to recruiting individual team members after Mark Zuckerberg's roughly $1 billion acquisition offer was rejected, while other Thinking Machines Lab founders departed to OpenAI and xAI. The talent war unfolds as Meta spends $115-135 billion on AI infrastructure this year and navigates internal turmoil including the departure of chief AI scientist Yann LeCun, who publicly criticized Llama 4 results before founding AMI Labs in Paris.

Meta's systematic recruitment of Thinking Machines Lab founders

• ▪Thinking Machines Lab raised $2 billion at a $12 billion valuation in a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz in July 2025.
• ▪Barret Zoph and Luke Metz returned to OpenAI from Thinking Machines Lab in January 2026.
• ▪Sam Schoenholz returned to OpenAI from Thinking Machines Lab in January 2026.
• ▪Andrew Tulloch, a Thinking Machines Lab co-founder, joined Meta in October with a compensation package reportedly worth $1.5 billion over six years.
• ▪Thinking Machines Lab was reportedly in talks for a new funding round at a $50 billion valuation by November.
• ▪Mark Zuckerberg reportedly offered roughly $1 billion to acquire Thinking Machines Lab outright and was rejected.

Restructuring of Meta's AI organization and leadership conflicts

• ▪Meta created Meta Superintelligence Labs as a new division in June 2025.
• ▪Yann LeCun raised $1 billion to found AMI Labs in Paris after leaving Meta.
• ▪Yann LeCun departed Meta in November 2025 after 12 years as chief AI scientist.
• ▪Alexandr Wang was appointed as Meta's first chief AI officer in June 2025.
• ▪Meta paid $14.3 billion for a 49% non-voting stake in Scale AI in June 2025.
• ▪Meta Superintelligence Labs was split into four groups by August 2025.

Escalating compensation in the AI talent war

• ▪Meta reported $201 billion in revenue for 2025, up 22% year over year.
• ▪Andrew Tulloch's reported $1.5 billion compensation package over six years would be the most expensive individual talent acquisition in technology industry history if accurate.

Meta's AI output and strategic shift from open-source

• ▪Meta Superintelligence Labs released Muse Spark on 8 April.

Perspective of Meta

• ▪Meta's willingness to offer Andrew Tulloch $1.5 billion over six years reflects the company's assessment of top AI talent as critical to competitive advantage.

Perspective of Thinking Machines Lab

• ▪Thinking Machines Lab's reported pursuit of a $50 billion valuation occurs amid significant talent attrition to Meta, OpenAI, and xAI.
• ▪Thinking Machines Lab's rejection of Mark Zuckerberg's roughly $1 billion acquisition offer preceded the departure of key founding members.
• ▪Thinking Machines Lab's loss of multiple founders to competitors undermines the startup's ability to execute on its $12 billion valuation.

2 sources