Thinking Machines co-founder Barret Zoph leaves OpenAI for Google

Barret Zoph, who earlier this year left the AI startup he co-founded, Thinking Machines, to return to OpenAI, has changed jobs again — this time landing at Google.

Zoph previously spent two years at OpenAI before departing in October 2024 to co-found Thinking Machines alongside Mira Murati, who herself had left OpenAI a month earlier. In January, Zoph and fellow Thinking Machines co-founder Luke Metz abruptly left the startup to return to OpenAI, where Zoph was given responsibility for leading AI enterprise sales.

A short stay

That return proved brief. Zoph left OpenAI in June after only five months there. It has now emerged that he has taken a position as vice president of research at Google, a company where he had also worked before.

A Google spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that the company looks forward to Zoph returning and bringing his expertise in reinforcement learning and post-training to its Gemini models. TechCrunch has reached out to both OpenAI and Google for further comment.

Part of a wider pattern

Zoph's move is the latest example of the high turnover seen among AI executives industry-wide, a trend that has been especially pronounced at OpenAI over the past eight months. Despite preparing for a possible IPO and remaining one of the most influential companies in tech, OpenAI has lost a number of senior staff during this period, including its chief operating officer and, more recently, one of its top data center executives — departures that have left industry observers puzzled.