Twist and turns at AI startup Thinking Machines keep Valley on the edge

On January 12, Mira Murati, the CEO and cofounder of the AI startup Thinking Machines Lab, was asked by Sam Schoenholz, a leading researcher at the company, to join a meeting.

Murati sat down with Schoenholz and two other founders, Barret Zoph and Luke Metz. All four had worked together at OpenAI, the ChatGPT maker, where Murati had been the chief technology officer, before the creation of Thinking Machines.

But in less than a year, Zoph, Metz and Schoenholz had become deeply unhappy with the startup's direction. Thinking Machines lagged behind OpenAI and other rivals in releasing products and was struggling to raise new funding at an eye-popping $50 billion valuation. The men had urged Murati to strike a deal - Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, had discussed buying Thinking Machines, and Murati had developed closer ties with the CEO of Anthropic - but no transaction had resulted.


Two days later, Murati, 37, fired Zoph, 32, who had been talking behind her back since October with OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, about returning to the company. OpenAI immediately rehired Zoph, along with Metz and Schoenholz.

Another nine or so of Thinking Machines' roughly 100 employees have decamped to OpenAI or have received offers to join the company.

The turmoil at Thinking Machines, one of the highest-profile AI startups, is the latest episode in the perpetual soap opera that is the AI industry, where young billionaires clash over professional and personal relationships as they vie for money.