Andrew Tulloch, Co-Founder of Thinking Machines Lab, has left the AI startup to join Meta. A company spokesperson confirmed the exit, stating, “Andrew has decided to pursue a different path for personal reasons.” Tulloch’s move comes months after reports that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had attempted to acquire Thinking Machines Lab and later approached several of its key researchers when the deal fell through.
The WSJ reported that Zuckerberg personally courted Tulloch with a compensation package valued at up to $1.5 billion over six years, a claim Meta dismissed as “inaccurate and ridiculous.” The hiring move is part of Meta’s broader strategy to attract top AI talent after the underperformance of its Llama 4 model. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previously remarked that Meta had been offering “$100 million bonuses” to lure leading researchers from rival firms. Tulloch’s departure highlights the intensifying competition among Silicon Valley’s major players as they race to strengthen their AI research and product pipelines.