Layoffs & Tech JobsAug 27, 2026·1 min read

Barret Zoph, the Thinking Machines co-founder ousted before joining OpenAI, is now at Google

TechCrunch – All

Aug 27, 2026

Barret Zoph, the Thinking Machines co-founder ousted before joining OpenAI, is now at Google

Summary

The game of musical chairs for AI executives continues. Barret Zoph, a co-founder of the AI startup Thinking Machines who left the company earlier this year to rejoin OpenAI, has found yet another job. Zoph spent two years at OpenAI and left in October 2024 to co-found Thinking Machines with Mira Murati, who had left the AI lab the month prior. In January, Zoph and another Thinking Machines co-founder, Luke Metz, quite dramatically departed from the startup to return to OpenAI. It was later revealed that Zoph had been fired . His return didn’t quite stick. Zoph spent only five months at OpenAI, where he was tasked with heading AI enterprise sales. He left the company in June. And now we know where he landed. The startup community will gather to answer a pivotal question: How do you build sustainably in the AI era?

From the source

Zoph, who co-founded Thinking Machines Lab alongside Mira Murati and also served as the startup's CTO, led a brief stint at OpenAI and is now at Google.

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