Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is leading one of the fiercest recruiting drives in Silicon Valley history. Zuckerberg has been on a mission to build an AI “dream team,” poaching leaders from Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Apple, and even OpenAI. His latest target was Mira Murati, the former OpenAI chief technology officer, now running her own AI venture, Thinking Machines Lab.
Mira Murati’s AI Lab resists Zuckerberg’s Billion-Dollar chase
According to WSJ reports, Zuckerberg approached Murati earlier this year with an offer to buy her young startup. But when she refused, Meta’s chief decided to try another way, hiring her people directly. Over the next few weeks, he reportedly reached out to more than a dozen of her team members, trying to convince them to join Meta, even offering a jaw-dropping amount.
At the top of Zuckerberg’s target was Andrew Tulloch, co-founder and one of the most skilled at Thinking Machines. To bring him on board, Zuckerberg allegedly offered a massive package valued at up to $1 billion over six years, including bonuses and stock incentives. Tulloch, back in August, rejected his offer.
None of his teammates switched sides either. However, according to a new WSJ report, Tulloch recently left Thinking Machines Lab after Meta offered him a compensation package reportedly worth up to $1.5 billion over six years.
Who is Mira Murati?
In Silicon Valley, walking away from a billion-dollar offer is very rare. But as the AI talent war rages on, money alone isn’t enough to win over researchers who are loyal to their founders and targets. The brain behind ChatGPT, Mira Murati, spent six years at OpenAI before launching her own lab in 2024. In the tech industry, Murati, who is of Albanian-American descent, is one such leader who inspires that loyalty.
36-year-old Murati, known for her calm leadership, hands-on approach and brilliant management style, was one of the most respected employees at OpenAI. At Thinking Machines, she has created a similar culture where even senior researchers are called “Members of Technical Staff,” a team-first approach rather than a rigid hierarchy.
When she launched her startup in February, more than 20 of her former OpenAI colleagues followed her there. John Schulman, one of the brains behind ChatGPT, also joined her at the new venture. Most of them came from OpenAI’s post-training team, the same group that helped the chatbot learn human-like conversation.
Mira Murati’s early life
Murati was born on December 16, 1988, in Vlorë, Albania, during the final years of the country’s totalitarian regime. Growing up, Murati saw a lot of economic uncertainty and political transitions that greatly impacted her life. Both of her parents were high school literature teachers who pushed her toward academics. She constantly topped Olympiads and competitions during her schooling days. Back in 2023, Murati told Microsoft’s CTO, Kevin Scott, that she had “an organic interest toward math and science.”
When Murati was 16, her life took a big turn when she won a United World Colleges scholarship. The competition brought together students from 80 countries and gave her the opportunity to study at Pearson College in British Columbia. After graduating from Pearson, Murati went on to earn a dual degree, a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Colby College in 2011 and a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Dartmouth College. The experience at both helped her build her skills and technical expertise, which later played a big role in her Silicon Valley ambitions.
Mira Murati’s professional journey
After a summer analyst internship at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo and a brief stint as an Advanced Concepts Engineer at Zodiac Aerospace, Murati joined Elon Musk’s Tesla as a senior product manager and worked on Tesla’s SUV project. In 2016, she joined Leap Motion, a startup, as vice president. In 2018, Murati joined OpenAI and served as vice president of Applied AI and Partnerships. In just a matter of a year, she was promoted to Chief Technology Officer in 2022.
At OpenAI, Murati was in charge of developing some of the most transformative AI technologies of the modern era. She led multiple teams, including those working on ChatGPT, DALL-E, Codex, and Sora.
In 2023, when OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman was suddenly removed from his position, Murati was named interim CEO and got involved in the Silicon Valley drama. Her tenure lasted just three days before Emmett Shear replaced her, after which Altman returned as CEO.
In October first week Murati’s team, Thinking Machines Lab, launched Tinker. The team had earlier described it as a “multimodal AI that works with how you naturally interact with the world.” The company recently raised $2 billion from investors and set up its office just a few blocks away from OpenAI in San Francisco’s Mission District.
