{"slug": "barret-zoph-the-thinking-machines-co-founder-who-defected-to-openai-is-now-at", "title": "Barret Zoph, the Thinking Machines co-founder who defected to OpenAI, is now at Google", "summary": "Barret Zoph, a co-founder of Thinking Machines who left the startup in January to rejoin OpenAI, has taken a position as vice president of research at Google, where he previously worked. A Google spokesperson said the company looks forward to Zoph bringing his reinforcement learning and post-training expertise to Gemini. Zoph's return to OpenAI lasted only five months before he left in June, amid a wave of high-profile executive departures at OpenAI.", "body_md": "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.\n\nZoph 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](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/14/mira-muratis-startup-thinking-machines-lab-is-losing-two-of-its-co-founders-to-openai/) from the startup to return to OpenAI.\n\nHis 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](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/952837/barret-zoph-openai-thinking-machines-lab) in June. And now we know where he landed.\n\nZoph has taken a position as vice president of research at Google (which happens to be another company where he previously worked). “We look forward to Barret returning to Google and bringing his RL and post-training expertise to Gemini,” a Google spokesperson told the [Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/thinking-machines-lab-co-founder-barret-zoph-joins-google-49f594e6).\n\nTechCrunch reached out to OpenAI and Google for more information.\n\nIt’s not always easy to divine why tech executives seem to be spending less time in their roles. The turnover rate in the AI industry [is high](https://www.lucent-search.com/post/86-of-ai-executives-struggle-to-retain-talent-why), and it’s been especially high at OpenAI — a company that, despite readying itself for an IPO and being one of the most powerful presences in the tech world, has lost a lot of critical staff over the last eight months. High-level executives — from the [departure of its COO](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/11/brad-lightcap-openais-longtime-coo-is-leaving-to-start-something-new/) to the recent loss of one of [its top data center execs](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/25/openai-loses-a-top-data-center-exec-as-stream-of-high-profile-departures-continues/?_thumbnail_id=3145297) — has left onlookers [scratching their heads](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/26/how-do-we-explain-openais-executive-exodus/).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/barret-zoph-the-thinking-machines-co-founder-who-defected-to-openai-is-now-at", "canonical_source": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/27/barret-zoph-the-thinking-machines-co-founder-who-defected-to-openai-is-now-at-google/", "published_at": "2026-08-27 19:52:52+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-27 20:19:40.198244+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-research"], "entities": ["Barret Zoph", "Thinking Machines", "OpenAI", "Google", "Gemini", "Mira Murati", "Luke Metz"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/barret-zoph-the-thinking-machines-co-founder-who-defected-to-openai-is-now-at", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/barret-zoph-the-thinking-machines-co-founder-who-defected-to-openai-is-now-at.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/barret-zoph-the-thinking-machines-co-founder-who-defected-to-openai-is-now-at.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/barret-zoph-the-thinking-machines-co-founder-who-defected-to-openai-is-now-at.jsonld"}}