Key Takeaways:
Barret Zoph, co-founder of $12 billion Thinking Machines Lab, joins Google DeepMind as VP of research after a brief return to OpenAI.
Google DeepMind hired Barret Zoph, co-founder of $12 billion AI startup Thinking Machines Lab, as vice president of research, a homecoming after a string of high-profile departures from the search giant's AI unit.
Zoph said Wednesday he will join Google DeepMind as vice president of research, according to Reuters. He previously served as vice president of research at OpenAI before co-founding Thinking Machines Lab in 2024.
Zoph spent six years as a research scientist at Google Brain, which merged with DeepMind to form Google DeepMind in 2023. He left Google for OpenAI, then departed in 2024 to co-found Thinking Machines Lab. He made a brief return to OpenAI earlier this year after leaving the startup, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The hire lands as Google's AI unit undergoes a leadership shakeup. DeepMind CEO Dennis Hassabis stepped aside this month, and Reuters reported that some teams are moving out of DeepMind into corporate Google. Alphabet's ability to retain and attract senior AI researchers will shape its competitive position against OpenAI and Meta, which have been aggressively recruiting talent.
The appointment is part of a broader reshuffling across the AI industry's top labs. Meta has hired Luke Metz, another Thinking Machines Lab co-founder, to its Superintelligence Labs team, where he reports directly to Alexandr Wang, founder of Scale AI and Meta's chief AI officer. Meta also brought on Andrew Tulloch, a third Thinking Machines co-founder, plus two additional researchers from the startup.
Meta's hiring spree is backed by a three-year plan to spend over $600 billion in the U.S. on AI superintelligence development. The company acquired a 49 percent stake in Scale AI and hired Wang to lead its AI efforts, then assembled a team of elite researchers led by Yang Song, a former TikTok executive.
For Google, Zoph's return fills a gap at a critical moment. The company has lost several high-profile researchers in recent months, and the DeepMind reorganization — including Hassabis's departure from the CEO role — has raised questions about Alphabet's ability to maintain its research edge.
Zoph's background spans both research and product. His six years at Google Brain gave him deep familiarity with the company's AI infrastructure, and his time at OpenAI and Thinking Machines Lab exposed him to the competitive dynamics of the frontier model race. Thinking Machines Lab, valued at $12 billion, was founded by a group of former OpenAI researchers who left to build their own AI systems.
Meta's $600 billion AI spending plan and its acquisition of a 49 percent stake in Scale AI have made it a formidable competitor for AI talent. The company's Superintelligence Labs team, led by Wang, has become a magnet for researchers from OpenAI and Thinking Machines Lab. The scale of Meta's investment dwarfs what most rivals are spending on AI research and infrastructure.
OpenAI, meanwhile, has been dealing with its own talent challenges. The company's agents were recently involved in a security incident at Hugging Face, according to Reuters, and it has faced questions about its ability to retain senior researchers. The departure of Zoph and other Thinking Machines co-founders from OpenAI's orbit highlights the churn at the top of the AI research field.
For investors, Alphabet's AI strategy depends on DeepMind's ability to keep producing frontier models that compete with OpenAI's GPT series and Meta's open-source Llama family. The Zoph hire is a positive signal, but the broader question is whether Google can stem the outflow of researchers that has characterized the past year. With Meta spending $600 billion over three years and OpenAI continuing to attract investment, the competition for AI talent shows no signs of cooling.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
